Xiaomi follows Huawei by incorporating AI into its smartphones
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has announced plans to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) technology into its smartphones as of next year. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun made the announcement at a conference in Wuzhen, revealing that the company would make AI its focus over the next 10 years. He also expressed the belief that many internet companies will transition into AI companies in the near future. The news follows Huawei's announcement that it will make use of AI in its forthcoming designs.

The tech industry is replete with concepts and prototypes as well as real products utilizing Artificial Intelligence for various purposes. The smartphone industry has been the latest port of call with Huawei releasing its 2017 flagship Mate 10 models as well as the Huawei V10 with an AI chip. Xiaomi has now revealed that it plans to incorporate AI technology into its smartphones as from next year. The disclosure was made by CEO Lei Jun during a speech delivered at the 4th World Internet Conference held today in Wuzhen, China.

Lei Jun’s was reportedly titled “Opportunities for Xiaomi in the AI Age.” During the speech, the Xiaomi CEO stated that in the next 10 years, the company’s core strategy would focus on Artificial Intelligence. He also disclosed that the next generation of Xiami phones expected to be released in 2018 will incorporate Artificial Intelligence. However, no specific time frame was revealed as to when the AI smartphones would start launching. But the tech giant is expected to debut with the Xiaomi Mi 7 packing a Snapdragon 845 chip in the early part of next year. The flagship Mi 7 could very well feature the technology as it would most likely be featured first on a flagship model.

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Xiaomi first released an AI product in July with the launch of the Mi AI Speaker. The company is in an advantaged position to develop its AI technology as it already has a vast smart IoT platform and the global user base of the MIUI ROM keeps growing, presently said to have exceeded 300 million users. Xiaomi’s cloud service is also said to house over 200PB data. Lei Jun sees internet companies becoming Artificial Intelligence companies in the near future and so believes Xiaomi should actively embrace AI technology now.

(source)