At its annual global conference in Shanghai, Baidu announced its new smart glasses, which are powered by its generative AI model, ERNIE which is considered one of China’s leading AI models, rivaling ChatGPT.

The AI in the glasses functions as a personal assistant, allowing users to interact with it vocally and ask questions about what they see. The AI analyzes images from the camera and what the users say to provide appropriate answers.

Users can control the glasses through voice commands, enabling them to operate the camera, take pictures, record videos, and play music hands-free.

Baidu aims to start selling its smart glasses next year, positioning itself as a more suitable option for Chinese users compared to Meta and Snap’s smart glasses.

Meta collaborates with Ray-Ban to produce smart glasses equipped with Meta AI, selling them for $380. However, these glasses are not available for use in China because the AI servers are located in the United States.

There is growing interest from companies in AI-powered smart glasses. There are indications that Google and Xiaomi are also looking to launch smart glasses soon. It wouldn’t be surprising if ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, releases its version, given that it already has the most used chatbot, Doubao. Last month, ByteDance also launched AI interaction earbuds that function without a phone.