AI meets AR: How Rokid Glasses bring multilingual, real-time intelligence to smart eyewear globally
Updated
March 3, 2026 3:50 PM
Rokid's smart glasses. PHOTO: ROKID
Rokid, a Chinese company specializing in AI-powered smart eyewear and human–computer interaction, has rolled out a major software update for the international version of its Rokid Glasses. This update makes it the first smart glasses manufacturer to natively support Google’s Gemini, alongside three other leading large language models: OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Alibaba’s Qwen and DeepSeek.
The integration is powered by Rokid’s device-to-cloud architecture, which enables users to switch between AI models on the fly. In practice, this means a traveler can receive a real-time translation in Japanese using one AI model, then quickly switch to ChatGPT to answer a technical query—without noticeable delay. The system also supports multi-modal inputs like voice and gestures, making interactions more intuitive for everyday use.
This is more than a routine software update. By combining AI models from both U.S. and Chinese developers, Rokid is making its smart glasses relevant to global users, with features that adapt to local languages and preferences while maintaining high performance.
These technological advancements have directly fueled Rokid’s international growth. Between November 2024 and October 2025, Shangpu Group data shows Rokid Glasses ranked No.1 in global sales for AI glasses with display functionality. Crowdfunding milestones further reflect this momentum: the product became the fastest smart glasses to raise over 100 million Japanese Yen on Japan’s MAKUAKE platform and broke Kickstarter records for smart eyewear.
Taken together, Rokid’s update highlights a shift in the smart glasses space: success increasingly comes from openness, flexibility and localized AI experiences rather than closed, single-platform ecosystems. By giving users choice, integrating global AI capabilities and bridging cultural and linguistic gaps, Rokid is positioning itself as a serious contender in the international AR and AI wearable market.
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Reimagining biodefense at the intersection of AI, biology and urgency.
Updated
January 8, 2026 6:34 PM
Through computational tools, Valthos analyzes biological data to design adaptive solutions against emerging threats. PHOTO: VALTHOS
Valthos has raised US$30 million in seed funding, led by the OpenAI Startup Fund, Lux Capital and Founders Fund, to advance its mission of building next-generation biodefense systems.
The company’s work comes at a time when biotechnology is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Biotechnology is moving at record speed. These new tools can lead to life-changing medical discoveries, but they also bring the risk of dangerous biological agents being developed faster than ever.
“The issue at the core of biodefense is asymmetry”, said Kathleen McMahon, co-founder of Valthos. “It’s easier to make a pathogen than a cure. We’re building tools to help experts at the frontlines of biodefense move as fast as the threats they face”. The gap Valthos aims to close is between the rapid rise of biological threats and the slower pace of developing cures. Therefore, the company is developing AI systems that can rapidly analyze biological sequences and significantly shorten the time needed to design medical countermeasures.
“In this new world, the only way forward is to be faster. So we set out to build a new tech stack for biodefense”, said Tess van Stekelenburg, co-founder of Valthos. “This software infrastructure strengthens biodefense today and lays the groundwork for the adaptive, precision therapeutics of tomorrow”.
The company was founded by van Stekelenburg, a partner at Lux Capital and McMahon, the former head of Palantir’s Life Sciences division. Together, they’ve built a multidisciplinary team of experts from Palantir, DeepMind, Stanford’s Arc Institute and MIT’s Broad Institute, bringing together deep experience in software engineering, machine learning and biotechnology.
“Technology is moving fast. An industrial ecosystem of builders, companies and solutions further democratizes AI to provide broad resilience, and ensures the U.S. continues to lead as AI increasingly powers everything around us. As AI and biotech rapidly advance, biodefense is one of the new industry verticals that helps maximize the benefits and minimize the risks”, said Jason Kwon, OpenAI’s Chief Strategy Officer. “Valthos is pushing the frontier of protection and defense in one of the most strategic intersections of multiple world-changing technologies, and with the team to do it”.
Looking ahead, Valthos plans to expand its engineering team and scale its software infrastructure for both government and commercial partners — moving closer to its goal of enabling faster, smarter and more adaptive biodefense capabilities.