PhoneGPT comes into reality with chip and system upgrades

The PhoneGPT era is rapidly approaching, with mobile-end AI or artificial intelligence capabilities similar to ChatGPT becoming a reality. Driven by the latest releases of smartphones and chip technology, Chinese phone vendors such as OPPO and Vivo are at the forefront of this revolution, ahead of Apple's iPhone.

These PhoneGPT applications, including automated restaurant bookings, dialect recognition and language translation, call and audio transcription, and AI-enhanced photo optimization, offer fast responses and robust privacy protection on mobile devices, according to several on-site demos launched this week.

On Thursday, the domestic market leader Vivo launched its AI system PhoneGPT with new or upgraded chips, operating systems, AI systems and customized features for Chinese consumers.

The on-device AI system offers 3 billion data capabilities and triple AI performance with about a half reduction in energy and memory consumption of previous on-device AI systems, the company said at the Vivo Developer Conference in Shenzhen on Thursday.

Vivo shows China's leading position in on-device AI development. Comparatively, Apple's widely-expected AI features will be available next year in China.

Improvement in AI chips in smartphones

This move signifies a strategic shift for Chinese manufacturers, amidst a growing focus on generative AI technology, a powerful tool for creating new content and experiences.

About 12 percent of smartphones sold in China this year will have generative AI features such as ChatGPT-like functions, higher than the global level of 9 percent. Generative AI phones have become a new track for Chinese brands to create a differentiated high-end experience in the local market and challenge Apple, said researcher Canalys.

One spotlight of on-device AI development comes from chips, such as the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 released on Wednesday. It features upgraded GPU and NPU to offer more powerful AI functions with lower energy consumption, a key issue in the PhoneGPT era. The Dimensity 9400's AI large language model (LLM) performance increases 80 percent in prompt word processing performance, with 35-percent power savings compared to the previous generation, creating an intelligent computing foundation for thousands of innovative AI applications, said MediaTek.

The chip will be adopted by Vivo, OPPO and other brands in the fourth quarter, helping them differentiate product lines and keep generative AI advantages, the firms said.

OPPO will release its Find X8 series with the new MediaTek chip on October 24, with an improvement in power efficiency. The upgraded AI chip will conquer the industry's "impossible triangle" of a thin and light body, powerful performance, and long-lasting battery life for the first time.

Another mobile chip giant Qualcomm will hold its annual tech conference on October, when it is expected to release a batch of AI upgrades.