New Delhi, March 8 (IANS) Agent-based artificial intelligence can only succeed if it can work seamlessly across applications and connected devices, but China’s fragmented mobile ecosystem and super-app fragmentation are hindering such interoperability, says a report explaining the Doubao phone controversy.
Lawfare media reports that Chinese “do-it-all” apps such as WeChat and Alipay have created a closed ecosystem that blocks agents from accessing calendars, emails, chat logs, and payment credentials.
Additionally, data privacy and security are sacrificed when these broad permissions are granted across devices, the report noted, which is “at the heart of the controversy surrounding OpenClaw in the West and China’s Doubao phones.”
“What this means for AI agents is that when they invoke an app to complete a task (for example, accessing the content of a WeChat text message discussing plans to meet for dinner), the task will fail unless the agent has the ability to read and act on the information held within the app’s walled garden,” the report explains.
The agent, built into Doubao’s phones, can read the screen and act like the user, leading major apps like Taobao, Alipay and WeChat to block it due to concerns about fraud and data leaks.
With China blocking Google, Android smartphone makers have developed GMS-equivalent products that run on Android’s open source operating system. Chinese users who switch smartphones between manufacturers also have to switch app stores, cloud services, Assistant, push notifications, and various other services.
“Meanwhile, if developers want to sell their apps in different countries, they need to adapt their software to each manufacturer’s proprietary layer,” the report says, explaining the disruption in China’s manufacturing ecosystem.
However, to overcome these challenges, a battle is being waged within China to shape regulations and standards for agent AI, the report noted. Winners will be able to create guardrails for things like data access and security authentication.
