Seizing the consumer-grade AI market! Alibaba's self-developed AI glasses are available for pre-sale, with a minimum price of 3,699 yuan after subsidies, and a new chatbot challenges ChatGPT

Alibaba is accelerating its entry into the consumer-grade artificial intelligence market. The Chinese tech giant launched the pre-sale of its first self-developed AI glasses on the 24th, along with a new generation of chatbots, challenging Meta's smart glasses and OpenAI's ChatGPT in their respective fields.

According to Hard AI, Alibaba's Quark AI glasses began pre-sale at midnight on the 24th in the Quark smart devices Tmall flagship store, with a starting price of 4,699 yuan. After subsidies for 88VIP members, the actual price is 3,699 yuan, while ordinary consumers will pay 3,999 yuan. The product is set to ship in December. These glasses are powered by Alibaba's self-developed Qwen large language model and Quark AI assistant, supporting hands-free calls, music playback, and real-time translation features.

At the same time, Alibaba launched a new mode of the AI Chat Assistant chatbot in its Quark app, supported by the latest Qwen3 model, offering text and voice conversations, image editing, AI writing, and more, aiming to integrate AI search and dialogue within a single interface.

These consumer-facing AI products signify a strategic shift for Alibaba. Following the news, Alibaba's Hong Kong stock closed up nearly 1.7% on Thursday, with pre-market trading in the U.S. also showing gains.

Hardware Configuration Competes with Meta's Smart Glasses, Deeply Integrates Alibaba's Ecological Services

The Quark AI glasses are equipped with dual flagship chips, Qualcomm AR1 and Hengxuan BES2800, featuring dual optical dual-eye display, adjustable display distance, and an integrated lens solution for myopic users.

In terms of photography, the product supports ultra-fast capture, super night scene, ultra-clear video, and dual anti-shake functions. For battery life, it achieves an "infinite endurance" experience through convenient lens battery replacement.

These glasses are the first product released by Alibaba in July this year and mark the company's first attempt to enter the wearable device field. Many tech companies view smart glasses and other wearable devices as the next frontier of computing after smartphones. Alibaba's move directly competes with the smart glasses designed in collaboration with Meta and Ray-Ban, and it will also compete with Xiaomi, which released its own AI glasses this year.

In addition to mainstream functions such as calls, music, translation, memos, schedule reminders, teleprompter, and photo Q&A, the Quark AI glasses have been deeply customized to develop several Alibaba ecological services.

These customized features include the Gaode near-eye navigation system, Alipay's "Look and Pay" secure payment, Taobao's price comparison for similar items, and Fliggy travel reminders. During the pre-sale period, all users will also receive a 3-year Quark cloud storage SVIP membership worth 900 yuan, a 99 yuan lens battery, and a 10% discount on lens fitting services.

Chatbot Challenges ChatGPT

Alibaba's newly launched AI Chat Assistant is a new chatbot mode within the Quark app, powered by the latest Qwen3 model.

This product allows users to switch to the chatbot interface and engage in conversations via text or voice. Alibaba stated that this new feature achieves "AI search and dialogue" within a single interface, aiming to enable users to fulfill all their needs within a single application Functional aspects include photo editing, image-based problem solving, and AI writing.

This product is Alibaba's response to the growing chatbot products from OpenAI's ChatGPT to DeepSeek.

Consumer AI Becomes Alibaba's New Battleground

These products highlight an increasingly focused area for Alibaba—consumer-facing artificial intelligence.

Since the beginning of this year, Alibaba has been active in the AI field, continuously releasing updated versions of models and striving to sell these technologies to enterprise customers through its cloud computing business to revitalize cloud business growth.

However, smart glasses and chatbot products indicate that Alibaba is shifting more focus towards the consumer AI market, attempting to establish a competitive advantage in this emerging field