Artificial intelligence-powered smart glasses from Alibaba are on sale on Thursday, as the Chinese tech giant considers accelerating its efforts toward consumer AI in a market that is increasingly competitive.
The Quark AI Glasses were first introduced in July, which came in two versions: the S1, which starts at 3,799 Chinese yuan ($536), and the G1 at 1,899 yuan.
The technology giant has launched its Qwen AI models, Alibaba’s version of ChatGPT, which comes with a device that also links to its newly-launched Qwen app. This indicates that its users can use voice control to get the glasses to perform tasks.
The glass’s lenses are effectively screens, and the device has an in-built camera in the frame. Alibaba reported that the primary distinction between the S1 and G1 is the display.
The firm claimed that certain of the features are on-the-go translation, AI-generated meeting notes, and asking questions to the virtual assistants.
Users can take pictures of any product with the use of a camera in the lens, and then the device will display the price of that product on Taobao, Alibaba’s main shopping app in China.
Alibaba, like other technology firms such as U.S. giant Meta, is betting that smart glasses might be the next big consumer device after the smartphone.
Meta announced the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses at $799, the first consumer-ready smart glasses with a built-in display by the social media company, in September. Through a special wristband, users are able to operate the device through hand gestures.
Alibaba’s glasses will first be sold in China and compete with local competitors, such as consumer electronics manufacturer Xiaomi and startup Xreal.
The market of smart glasses remains small but rapidly increasing. A forecast from Omdia reported that the shipments of AI glasses are expected to exceed more than 10 million units by 2026.
In the case of Alibaba, the glasses represent its most recent action in the consumer AI market since it tries to capitalize on its recent achievements.
During the initial week of the open beta release, the ChatGPT-style Qwen app of the company received 10 million downloads.
However, the cloud computing business of Alibaba, in which it records much of its revenue in AI-related has experienced faster growth in the previous quarter.
The Hangzhou-based company is among the leaders in the AI arena in China, and has been heavily investing in AI with other competitive giants such as Baidu and Tencent, and aggressively launching new models.
