AI Assistant Smart Glasses Launched at Baidu World 2024

Leading Chinese search engine Baidu has launched a new range of applications for its AI technology, including AI assistant-connected smart glasses and an LLM-powered text-to-image generator. 

The new applications were introduced at the company’s annual Baidu World 2024 conference, with the theme “applications are here.”

Company CEO Robin Li took the stage to unveil new smart glasses, which have a built-in AI assistant and were developed by Baidu’s hardware brand Xiaodu, of which Li is the head. The glasses are equipped with cameras to capture photos and videos and enable voice interactions with Baidu’s Ernie platform, a generative AI product.

Wearers of the glasses would be able to track calorie consumption, play music and even take videos, said the company.

The technology, initially to be sold only in China starting next year, is seen as a direct rival to the Meta platform Ray-Ban smart glasses. 

Baidu also launched a new AI-powered text-to-image technology called I-RAG. The  technology leverages the company’s search capabilities to overcome "hallucination" which can occur when an AI model deviates from the input text or contains non-existent elements.

In addition, the company revealed an LLM-powered code generator called Miaoda that allows users to develop software applications without extensive coding expertise.

Related:AI-Powered Smart Glasses Launched to Assist Dementia Patients

Both I-RAG and Miaoda follow Baidu’s recent heavy investment into the commercialization of large language model applications.

According to the company, AI-driven growth has helped to stabilize its finances in the second quarter. 

AI agents, calling them “carriers for content, information and services in the AI-native era” was reportedly highlighted by Li.

Baidu’s enterprise-facing AI agent Qiaocang enables businesses to create customized agents including customer service bots and sales assistants. 

Last year, the company launched the Ernie Bot v2.1.0 which is powered by Ernie 3.5. At the time, it said the bot surpassed ChatGPT 3.5 in comprehensive ability scores and outperformed GPT-4 in several Chinese language capabilities. 

Baidu has embedded Ernie Bot into existing products, such as in a virtual dashboard that families can use to monitor elderly relatives and from which they can be assisted, such as reminding them to take medication. 

The Ernie platform handles 1.5 billion user queries and interactions daily, according to the company. This is up from 200 million daily requests reported in May. Interactions include generating text, answering questions and assisting with various applications utilizing AI.

This article first appeared in IoT World Today's sister publication AI Business.