In the digital age, the vision of "everything is AI" is gradually becoming a reality. MWC Shanghai 2024 presents us with a feast of AI terminals, from smartphones to laptops, from smart homes to inspection robots, the integration of AI has made every smart terminal glow with unprecedented vitality and vitality.
Behind the AI-empowered intelligent terminals is the collision and integration of countless innovative ideas. At MWC Shanghai 2024, Honor showcased two breakthrough end-to-end AI innovations to the outside world for the first time: AI defocus eye protection technology and AI face swap detection technology, giving the latest ideas on how smart terminal manufacturers can use AI to empower individuals.
"Honor has long adhered to the development logic and concept of device-side AI, which is to better enable consumers and individuals in the future, and make individuals stronger." Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor, said in an interview with the media that device-side AI and models can do applications and services that cannot be done in the cloud and network. Using AI to enable hardware will have very broad prospects in the future. ”
AI-enabled hardware This is the tip of the iceberg
The application of AI technology in mobile phones has become more and more extensive, including voice recognition, image recognition, intelligent recommendation, etc., which has made great progress, bringing users a new experience. However, at present, the common practice of mobile phone manufacturers is to miniaturize the existing large model and then introduce it to the mobile phone, and the mobile phone manufacturer is more like a "porter", loading the AI large model application of the existing Internet platform into the mobile phone.
In Zhao Ming's view, the shrinking and transplanting of models through cloud-side AI cannot give full play to the capabilities of device-side AI.
Among mobile phone manufacturers, Honor proposed to use AI to enable the operating system three years ago to do system-level AI capabilities. In January this year, the Honor MagicOS 8.0 based on the platform-level AI kernel was released, creating human-computer interaction based on intent recognition.
At MWC Shanghai 2024, Honor showcased two breakthrough end-side AI innovations to the outside world for the first time: AI defocus eye protection technology and AI face swap detection technology. Among them, AI defocus eye protection technology combines end-side AI with the screen, which can play a role in soothing vision when looking at the mobile phone screen according to the user's eye environment and habits; AI face swap detection is the industry's first device-side AI anti-fraud detection technology, which autonomously identifies the screen elements in a user's video call through the device-side AI capability, and will send a risk reminder to the user if AI face swapping is detected in the video content.
Zhao Ming believes that although cloud AI is powerful, traffic and data security cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, HONOR has always firmly believed that on-device AI can achieve applications and services that cannot be achieved on the cloud and network side. "AI enabling hardware is the tip of the iceberg, and there is also a lot of room for imagination in AI service reconstruction, connecting some applications and understanding of intentions to provide consumers with complete services, such as booking air tickets, taxis, service recommendations for restaurants after arriving in the local area, tourism resources, etc., which can provide more intimate AI services, which is the advantage and capability of our platform-level AI, and has greater imagination in the future."
AI capabilities are three years ahead of Apple
Although AI capabilities are transferred from the cloud to terminal devices, realizing real-time data processing and response, and improving user experience and application efficiency, device AI is also limited by computing power and power consumption, and has become an exclusive function of a few high-end models. For example, Apple's AI feature requires an iPhone 15 Pro and above to work.
"If all AI capabilities are only available in flagship phones, and only the latest SoC chips can support them, then where is AI egalitarianism?" Zhao Ming said that Honor's device-side AI development strategy is to continue to build core basic capabilities, and low-power AI engines and algorithms are the core focus of Honor's device-side AI development. For example, any door can be supported on the Honor Magic series, the digital series, and even the X series, which is where Honor is unique.
In response to some people saying that Honor ran three years ahead of schedule and was caught up by Apple in one day, Zhao Ming said that there is no doubt that Apple has both obvious advantages in computing power, as well as huge advantages in manpower investment and the capital of the entire company. But the ability of low power consumption still needs time to polish, when Apple can also support his so-called AI capabilities on the iPhone11, and then he is really ahead in the end-side AI. Honor MagicOS 8.0 has been upgraded to nearly 40 million users, and many mobile phone users can enjoy device-side AI services.
"In the future, Honor will adhere to AI enablement and reconstruct all aspects of its business such as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, and wearables. As hardware continues to evolve and evolve, operating systems and software will extend to the capillaries of the intelligent body. Zhao Ming revealed that this year, Honor's R&D investment will continue to account for more than 11% of revenue.