The Future of Smartphones: Betting Big on sLM

Mobile device manufacturers are optimistic about the prospects for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in smartphones.

Companies like Qualcomm and MediaTek have launched smartphone chipsets that have enough muscle for processing AI applications. Previously, many AI applications on devices were partially processed in the cloud and then offloaded to the phone.

However, cloud-based models also have drawbacks, such as high inference costs, with some AI startups spending around $1 just to train and generate a single image. Advanced chips and on-device models will enable more AI applications to run on smartphones, saving costs while providing users with greater real-time computing power, leading to new business models.

In just one year since the popularity of ChatGPT, mobile device manufacturers have already implemented sLM technology in their smartphones.

Samsung’s recently launched Galaxy S24 series is equipped with on-device iA, capable of handling voice, text, and image processing. Google also introduced the Pixel 8 series, which features its own iA model called the Gemini Nano. Brian Rakowski, Google Pixel’s VP of Product Manager, also stated that Google’s most advanced large models will land directly in smartphones next year, stating, “ We’ve made significant progress in bringing these models to market .”

Xiaomi launched the SurgeOS operating system and various apps powered by its own sLMs last October, while Vivo announced the launch of the Blue Heart large model last year and opened the BlueLM-7B large model for both mobile and cloud use. OPPO also launched the AndesGPT large model in November last year, based on the “ edge-cloud collaboration
” design concept , and launched models of various parameter scales.

One of the highlights of this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC24) in Barcelona, ​​where I was actively involved as an exhibitor with AiMA , was the ability for large models to run locally on devices, which “ is the most disruptive aspect ,” exclaimed Ben Wood, Chief Analyst at CCS Insight. At the conference, some concepts of future phones with iA were also shown, such as Deutsche Telekom’s Tphone and Brain.ai, which completely dispenses with apps in favor of an AI interface. Therefore, some predictions suggest that, with iA dominating our smartphones, the end of the app era may be near, bringing a whole new ecosystem and competitive landscape.

In the battle of the big smartphone models, only Apple was absent. Now, with its open source big model, Apple has finally joined the fight.


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