Alibaba launches new Quark AI glasses series

Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group launched its new Quark artificial intelligence-powered glasses series on Thursday, which are equipped with the company's AI model, Qwen, and its newly launched AI application, Qwen App.

This launch marks another significant step in Alibaba's efforts to turn its advanced AI technologies into real-life applications in the consumer AI market, positioning Qwen as the intelligent core of its expanding consumer ecosystem.

Powered by Qwen, the Quark AI glasses provide intelligent, hands-free assistance for everyday life by combining voice and vision recognition to enable real-time AI interactions. It boasts an array of functions, such as instant price recognition, AI-powered Q&A, translation, navigation, AI-generated meeting notes, smart reminders, and live teleprompter.

Users can utilize the gadget to take photos, record videos, and listen to music. The glasses have also been deeply integrated with Alibaba's ecosystem, including Alipay, Amap, Taobao, Fliggy, as well as leading music streaming platforms like QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music.

Wu Jia, vice-president of Alibaba Group, said the Quark AI glasses enable Qwen to connect more deeply with the physical world and that Qwen will be integrated into more intelligent terminal devices.

"AI glasses are a uniquely powerful wearable as they consist of everything we envision for an AI assistant," Wu said.

Recently, Alibaba launched its latest consumer-facing AI application, Qwen App, which surpassed 10 million downloads within the first week of public beta launch, becoming one of the fastest-growing AI applications to date. The company also announced the deep integration of Qwen into its revamped Quark AI browser, further accelerating its push into the consumer AI market.

Launched in 2016 as a web browser incubated within Alibaba Group, Quark has become a leading AI-powered information services platform, with over 200 million users in China.

fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn