ByteDance said it has no plans to develop its own mobile phone and is in talks with manufacturers to roll out an AI assistant.
ByteDance, which owns TikTok and the Chinese version of short video app Douyin, has emerged as a leading player in Chinese consumer AI apps thanks to its chatbot Doubao. Photo: Reuters
Chinese tech giant ByteDance on Monday announced the launch of an artificial intelligence voice control tool. The tool will debut on smartphones made by ZTE and will eventually be available on smartphones from other manufacturers.
Powered by ByteDance’s popular Doubao large-scale language model, the AI assistant allows users to voice-activate tasks such as searching for content and booking tickets.
The tool will compete with similar AI capabilities introduced by Chinese smartphone makers such as Huawei and Xiaomi. Apple has not yet made Apple Intelligence available in China, but Alibaba has said it will partner with Apple to develop AI capabilities for the iPhone in China.
ByteDance’s AI voice tool was first installed on ZTE’s Nubia M153 device, with the prototype currently priced at 3,499 yuan ($495). This device is available for pre-order in limited quantities.
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ZTE stock rose 10% on Monday, its highest level since Oct. 29, buoyed by reports on mobile phones and news that it had won a series of contracts to supply 5G equipment in Vietnam.
ByteDance said in a statement that it has no plans to develop its own smartphone and is in talks with multiple phone manufacturers to roll out AI voice assistants.
ByteDance, which owns TikTok and the Chinese version of short video app Douyin, has emerged as a leading player in Chinese consumer AI apps thanks to its chatbot Doubao.
Doubao had 159 million monthly active users as of October, far more than Tencent’s Yuanbao’s 73 million and DeepSeek’s 72 million, according to AI product tracking platform Aicpb.com.
