Big Tech firms double down on AI glasses, as Ant offers iris authentication for payments

Chinese technology companies are stepping up their push into the smart-glasses market with new software and hardware innovations, intensifying competition to lead in the next generation of artificial intelligence-driven devices.

Ant International, the overseas arm of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, on Wednesday unveiled what it described as the world’s first iris-authentication technology for payments via smart glasses.

Chinese electronics makers Xiaomi and Meizu will be the first to offer the AI-based feature. Iris scanning is regarded as more secure than face or fingerprint recognition.

The iris feature is powered by gPass, a technology framework Ant launched in September for smart glasses, part of a broader bet on the growing use of wearable devices for shopping and payments.

The roll-out comes amid intensifying competition among Chinese tech heavyweights including Alibaba, Baidu and Xiaomi, which are ramping up efforts to dominate what market research firm Counterpoint has described as a “war of a hundred smart glasses”.