The Chinese search giant and one of the country’s leaders in the field of artificial intelligence, Baidu, intends to announce glasses with a built-in AI assistant. The device will compete with Meta✴ Ray-Ban, which has become an extremely successful product among AI gadgets.
Image source: ray-ban.com
The presentation of smart glasses will take place at the annual Baidu World event, which opens in Shanghai next week, Bloomberg reports, citing an anonymous source. They will have built-in cameras for taking photos and videos, as well as voice control, which will be provided by the Ernie Foundation AI model developed by Baidu.
The demand for AI monetization has found expression in a number of devices introduced this year, from the disastrous Humane AI Pin to the more popular Copilot+ PC line. Smart glasses, released jointly by Meta✴ and EssilorLuxottica (owns the Ray-Ban brand), were born earlier, but this year their second generation debuted – the device has become more functional and popular.
Beijing-based Baidu also intends to monetize its developments in the field of AI, on which it has been working for more than ten years. Its smart glasses will connect to the company’s proprietary services, including Baidu Maps and the Baike online encyclopedia. Sales of the device, which will likely have a more modest price tag than the $299 Meta✴ Ray-Ban, could go on sale as early as early 2025.
The development was carried out by Xiaodu, the hardware division of Baidu. Previously, it released smart speakers and wireless headphones that also connect to Baidu ecosystem services. Despite significant achievements in the field of AI, the company has difficulty maintaining leadership in the highly competitive Chinese market – the most popular chatbot in the country was developed by ByteDance (owns TikTok) Doubao, which displaced Ernie Bot in the ranking. Many Chinese companies have already produced glasses with AI; According to unofficial information, Apple is also interested in a device of this type.