You can see how those sorts of changes might leave someone like Lucovsky adrift. His career as an operating systems lead spans decades. He first achieved widespread recognition for his work on Windows NT back in the ’90s. He later worked at Meta (then called Facebook) as the lead for that company’s efforts to build an augmented reality OS. He left in a furor over that company’s ethics controversies in 2021. He’s been at Google since then, but it became a relatively short stint.
As for what he’s planning to do next, Lucovsky was not specific. “Moving forward, I am eager to explore opportunities that allow me to further advance Augmented Reality technology and its intersection with generative AI,” he wrote in a follow-up tweet. “I approach the next chapter with enthusiasm and anticipation for the exciting possibilities ahead.”
Lucovsky probably won’t have much trouble finding somewhere to land. Even as Google has struggled to find its focus in augmented reality, some competitors have made big commitments. At least for the time being, Meta remains as focused on XR as ever, though it seems unlikely Lucovsky would return there. Meanwhile, Apple plans to launch Vision Pro and visionOS to consumers early next year, and AR developers have just started building apps for the platform. Apple expects it to be a slow rollout, but its commitment to long-term investment in the space seems clear.
There are ongoing AR projects at Microsoft and Amazon, and of course, numerous VC-backed startups are working in the space.