Baidu Inc. is ready to unveil a pair of glasses with a built-in AI assistant, placing up a Chinese language rival to the Meta Ray-Bans which have confirmed a uncommon success in AI-powered {hardware}.
China’s search chief and longtime investor in Synthetic Intelligence (AI) plans to showcase the product at its annual Baidu World occasion in Shanghai subsequent week, in keeping with an individual acquainted with its schedule. The gadget may have built-in cameras to seize images and video and can help voice interactions constructed atop Baidu’s Ernie basis mannequin, the particular person mentioned, asking to not be named because the glasses aren’t but public.
The push to monetise AI has discovered expression in a sequence of {hardware} introductions this 12 months, from the Humane Ai Pin flop to Microsoft Corp.’s better-received Copilot+ PC vary. The Meta Platforms Inc. sensible glasses, designed in collaboration with Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica SA, are an older product that is grown in options, capabilities and recognition this 12 months. Meta mentioned demand had outpaced its potential to produce new models and EssilorLuxottica has singled them out as a product driving new gross sales.
Beijing-based Baidu is likewise working to capitalise on greater than a decade of AI growth, and its sensible glasses will hook up with a set of merchandise resembling Baidu Maps and its on-line encyclopedia, Baike. Gross sales of the product, which is able to doubtless value lower than Meta’s $299 (roughly Rs. 25,230), may begin as quickly as early 2025, the particular person mentioned.
A Baidu spokesperson didn’t reply to an emailed enquiry.
The AI glasses have been developed by Baidu’s {hardware} division, Xiaodu, which in 2020 raised funding from buyers together with IDG Capital at a worth of $2.9 billion (roughly Rs. 24,468 crore). Its key merchandise embrace voice-activated audio system and wi-fi earbuds that additionally join with Baidu’s content material ecosystem.
Regardless of a head begin in China’s ChatGPT-inspired AI frenzy, Baidu has struggled to hold on to management. TikTok proprietor ByteDance’s Doubao has in current months taken over as China’s hottest AI chatbot, nudging Ernie Bot down within the rankings. Baidu executives have additionally warned that displaying AI-generated leads to the corporate’s core search enterprise shall be a short-term unfavourable to promoting income.
A slew of Chinese language upstart {hardware} makers have launched AI glasses with cameras and open-ear audio already, whereas others have targeted on narrower performance like translation and pathfinding. Throughout the Pacific, Apple Inc. is exploring a push into the class with an inner examine of merchandise at the moment accessible in the marketplace, Bloomberg Information has reported.
© 2024 Bloomberg LP
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