Alibaba launches $660 AI glasses and unveils ChatGPT competitor in consumer tech push

Group has doubled down on its commitment to consumer-facing Artificial Intelligence, launching its first self-developed smart glasses, the Quark AI Glasses, and introducing a powerful new conversational AI assistant designed to challenge the dominance of OpenAI's ChatGPT.

The announcements signal a strategic move by the Chinese tech giant to bridge its leading enterprise-level AI capabilities with consumer hardware and applications, positioning itself as a direct competitor to global rivals like Meta Platforms.

AI glasses priced to rival Meta

Alibaba's Quark AI Glasses are set for pre-sale on its Tmall platform, priced at 4,699 Chinese yuan (approximately $660 USD), with shipments expected to begin in December. This pricing puts the device in direct competition with Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, signaling a high-stakes battle for the emerging wearable AI market.

The glasses are powered by Alibaba’s advanced Qwen Large Language Model (LLM) and the built-in Quark AI assistant.

Key features include:

• Hands-free communication: Supporting calls and music playback.

• Real-time translation: Enabling seamless language conversion on the go.

The glasses are deeply integrated with Alibaba's vast ecosystem, allowing for visual payments via Alipay, AR navigation through Amap, and visual product recognition for price comparison on Taobao.

While Meta's focus has been on social sharing and connectivity, Alibaba is positioning its glasses toward productivity and leveraging its powerful commercial and financial infrastructure.

New AI chat assistant enters crowded ring

Following up on the hardware launch, Alibaba introduced the AI Chat Assistant, a new conversational mode integrated within its existing Quark app. This free-to-use chatbot runs on Alibaba's latest Qwen3 models and allows users to interact through both text and voice for tasks ranging from answering questions to photo-based problem-solving.

Alibaba has been aggressively developing its Qwen family of models, with the latest iterations claiming to rival the performance of advanced global systems like OpenAI's GPT-5 Mini and Anthropic’s Claude models in certain benchmarks.

The integration of this advanced model directly into a consumer app is a clear attempt to capture market share in a sector currently led by foreign platforms (where regulations allow) and domestic rivals like ByteDance (Doubao).

This dual-pronged strategy, consumer hardware supported by high-performing AI software, demonstrates Alibaba’s commitment to making AI a central part of everyday life, moving beyond its traditional strength in cloud computing and e-commerce.