The College Board has officially banned smart glasses like Meta's Ray-Ban glasses and Apple Vision Pro from SAT testing centers. The devices' built-in cameras and AI capabilities make real-time test assistance possible - and we're just seeing the beginning of a much larger conversation about AI and education.

Starting spring 2026, students won't be allowed to wear smart glasses during exams. The official policy is blunt: "Smart glasses are prohibited during testing. Students with prescription smart glasses will need to remove them or test another day with standard glasses."

Why the ban? Because smart glasses have become sophisticated enough to be nearly perfect cheating devices. They can access AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, providing instant answers. They can use voice commands at volumes low enough to be undetectable in quiet testing environments. They can capture images via built-in cameras and use computer vision to analyze math problems. They can enable video calls through apps like WhatsApp, allowing test-takers to receive answers from others.

And here's the kicker: they're hard to detect. Some smart glasses like the Even Realities Even G2 look like regular eyewear and lack visible cameras. Good luck to proctors trying to spot the difference between prescription glasses and AI-enabled smart glasses in a room full of nervous teenagers.

This isn't theoretical. Students have already used smart glasses to cheat on exams, making this a documented threat rather than future-gazing paranoia. The College Board is reacting to something that's already happening.

But here's the uncomfortable truth: banning the hardware doesn't solve the underlying problem. AI is getting better, faster, and more accessible. Wearable tech is getting smaller and harder to detect. We're approaching a world where the technology to cheat on standardized tests is invisible and ubiquitous.

Standardized testing was built for an era when knowledge lived in books and brains. You could control access to information by controlling what students brought into the room. No calculators. No notes. No phones. Problem solved.

That model is breaking down. When students can whisper questions to an AI assistant embedded in their glasses - or eventually, their contact lenses or neural interfaces - how do you prevent cheating without strip-searching every test-taker?

The deeper question is whether standardized tests that measure memorization and formula application still make sense in an AI era. If students will have AI assistants available in their careers, why are we testing their ability to solve problems without them? It's like testing driving skills by seeing who can build a car from scratch.

Maybe the College Board should be rethinking what they test instead of just banning the tools students will use in real life. Test critical thinking, not memorization. Test the ability to evaluate AI output, not the ability to arrive at answers without assistance. Design assessments for the world students will actually inhabit.

But that would require fundamentally rethinking standardized testing. Much easier to ban smart glasses and hope the problem goes away. It won't.