Jakarta, Indonesia Sentinel — China’s artificial intelligence (AI) model DeepSeek is driving advancements in smart glasses technology, enabling more sophisticated devices at lower costs.
Based in Hangzhou, Chinese startup Rokid specializes in augmented reality (AR) smart glasses powered by AI. Rokid believes DeepSeek’s capabilities could make smart glasses competitive with Meta’s products.
“DeepSeek’s low-cost, high-performance model has fundamentally reshaped the economics of AI deployment,” said Misa Zhu Mingming, founder and CEO of Rokid, as reported by the South China Morning Post on Monday (Februrary 10).
Zhu noted that the cost of adopting DeepSeek-R1, for instance, is significantly lower than that of OpenAI’s GPT-4o model. He added that this would help companies in the industry cut research, development, and operational costs.
Rokid Smart Glasses
In November 2024, Rokid launched its first AR glasses integrated with a large language model (LLM), the technology behind generative AI applications like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
While Rokid’s AI-powered glasses resemble ordinary eyewear, they allow users to take photos, translate languages, navigate, and send messages in real-time.
According to Zhu, DeepSeek’s presence is transforming the industry. Combined with China’s strong hardware and optics supply chain, this technology offers a more flexible solution for the smart glasses sector, potentially accelerating adoption.
Zhu’s assessment highlights how DeepSeek has, in recent weeks, exemplified China’s push to overcome technological barriers, including U.S. trade restrictions on key components like advanced semiconductors. “The open-source nature of DeepSeek also accelerates AI iterations on devices,” Zhu said.
By leveraging model distillation, he explained, developers can migrate LLM capabilities into lighter smart glasses versions, keeping devices compact while maintaining strong performance.
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Open-source advancements have significantly contributed to China’s rapidly growing tech industry over the past decades. Open-source technology allows public access to source code, enabling third-party developers to modify or enhance software, fix bugs, or improve functionality.
Meanwhile, model distillation is a technique for training smaller models to replicate the behavior of larger, more advanced ones while drastically reducing computing costs. This practice is widely used by companies seeking to downsize AI models while maintaining high performance for users.
(Raidi/Agung)
