Huawei recently signed a strategic agreement with Chinese web services company Baidu, to develop an open mobile and AI ecosystem leveraging the expertise of each other on artificial intelligence.
Huawei said that the strategic agreement involves AI platforms, technology, internet services, and content ecosystems, aiming to offer AI that knows the consumers better.
“The future is all about smart devices that will actively serve us, not just respond to what we tell them to do,” said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group. “With a strong background in R&D, Huawei will work with Baidu to accelerate innovation in the industry, develop the next generation of smartphones, and provide global consumers with AI that knows you better.”
The open ecosystem will be built using Huawei’s HiAI platform and neural network processing unit (NPU), and Baidu’s PaddlePaddle deep learning framework and Baidu Brain. It will enable AI developers and consumers with a variety of new AI and smart services.
Huawei is developing HiAI platform on its embedded AI chipset called Kirin 970 which was used in Huawei Mate 10 (the first smartphone with embedded AI chipset, launched this year).
“It should come as no surprise that Baidu and Huawei are working together, because we have many similarities – technology is embedded in our DNA and we have developed our own technologies in order to grow,” said Robin Li, Baidu Chairman and CEO. “The Internet era is evolving into the era of AI. Baidu has been dedicated to the field of AI for a long time. Huawei has a large user base. Together, Baidu and Huawei can do many things which we were not able to do in the past. The Chinese saying ‘let a hundred flowers bloom’ is a good way to describe our cooperation – today we planted the seeds, and I believe soon they will grow into many flowers.”
The companies plan to improve the voice and image recognition on smart devices, and will build an augmented reality (AR) integrated with hardware and software ecosystem. It will enable more efficient human-machine interaction and provide consumers an open AR experience.
In addition, Huawei and Baidu will also put their efforts in internet services and content ecosystems to provide quality content and better service experience.
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The strategic cooperation between Huawei and Baidu will open up more possibilities for the development of AI and other technologies. It will help lay the foundation for a sustainable mobile and AI ecosystem, so that future technology can better understand users, better serve people, and promote better economic and social outcomes around the world, Huawei said.
