Honor CEO George Zhao (l) and GSMA CEO John Hoffman on stage at the Shanghai Mobile World Congress during an awards ceremony on June 27, 2024.
Honor
HANGZHOU, China – The transformative power of artificial intelligence has no value if user data is not protected, George Zhao, CEO of Chinese smartphone company Honor, said in an exclusive interview with CNBC on Thursday.
His comments come as Apple announced this month that it will begin rolling out personalized AI tools on certain devices in the U.S. this fall.
Honor already integrates some AI functions, e.g. B. allows users to open text messages and other notifications simply by looking at them, or eliminates copy-paste steps by linking Yelp-like apps directly to navigation or ride-hailing apps.
This week at Mobile World Congress in Shanghai, Honor introduced new AI tools to detect the use of deepfakes in videos and simulate lenses that can reduce myopia from long hours of screen use.
Zhao emphasized that Honor’s approach is to limit AI operations on personal data to the smartphone. It is also known as on-device AI and is in contrast to AI tools that rely on cloud computing to operate.
“Without data security and user privacy protection, AI becomes worthless,” Zhao said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. “This has always been one of our value propositions.”
“We say that user data will not be lost [the device]said Zhao. “This is a principle that we adhere to.”
Apple Intelligence, the iPhone company’s AI product, claims that it leverages on-device processing and relies on “server-based models” for more complex queries. Apple said its new “private cloud compute” will never store user data.
Honor says its on-device AI was developed in-house and the company is working with them Baidu And Google Cloud for some other AI functions.
“Overall, I believe that the development of AI so far has been going in two directions,” Zhao said. “Network [cloud] AI has become more and more powerful. But I believe that as on-device AI grows in capabilities and empowers consumers, it will become more intimate and understandable.”
“It will provide more support to consumers and help them interact with the future AI world,” he added.
Zhao pointed out that many generative AI applications, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, require large amounts of computing power that far exceed the battery capacity of a single smartphone.
This means they have to use the cloud, which raises questions about the security of data transfer.
Balancing AI capabilities, energy consumption and data protection is a “huge challenge” for manufacturers, Zhao said.
He said a system that collects a lot of user data to provide more personalized features becomes a “stronger” object compared to the person using the system.
“In the future development of smartphones, our goal is for individuals to become stronger,” Zhao said.
“As an object becomes stronger, it will reveal the smallness of the individual in its presence. I believe mobile devices need to empower and empower individuals.”
The Honor Magic V2, the Chinese manufacturer’s latest foldable smartphone, will be on display at the Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona, Spain.
Photo only | Photo only | Getty Images
Honor’s Magic V2 folding phone, which launched in China last summer and in Europe earlier this year, won the Best Smartphone in Asia Award at the Shanghai MWC this week.
The Magic V2 folds almost as thinly as an iPhone.
Honor is expected to release the Magic V3 in July with the company’s latest AI features.
When asked if the new foldable device would be even thinner, Zhao simply replied: “Of course we have to challenge ourselves, right?”
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2024-06-28 05:20:18
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