Imagine being able to read a foreign language through artificial intelligence-powered smart glasses, watching it translated before your eyes. That is the experience Alibaba is offering with its new AI-powered eyewear, as Chinese tech groups race to make smart glasses practical and affordable after years of false starts.
Priced at around $560 after discounts, Alibaba’s Quark AI glasses undercut what Apple or Meta are expected to charge for their upcoming models. That price tag could prove decisive in determining whether smart glasses finally move beyond hype and into real world use.
For more than a decade, the big obstacle facing smart glasses has been human discomfort. People do not want to be filmed as they go about their daily lives. Google Glass, for example, failed to gain traction because it made bystanders uneasy. The idea that someone nearby may be recording without our knowledge contributed to the public’s rejection of early augmented reality devices. It remains the obstacle that the makers of smart glasses cannot escape.