Alibaba Group Holding’s cloud computing unit is providing its Tongyi Qianwen large language model (LLM) to Transsion, the leading smartphone vendor in Africa, as more Chinese handset makers integrate generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies into their devices.
Advertisement
Alibaba Cloud on Tuesday announced a partnership with Transsion that will see Tongyi Qianwen power the GenAI features of the Phantom V Fold2, the latest flagship Android 5G smartphone from the Shenzhen-based handset maker’s Tecno brand. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
The two firms’ on-device GenAI service makes use of a so-called AI button, which enables a user to conduct multiple rounds of AI conversations and quickly make summaries of documents and phone call messages.
LLM is the technology underpinning GenAI services like ChatGPT. GenAI refers to the algorithms that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations and videos.
Tongyi Qianwen has shown “excellent performance” in terms of AI inferencing, according to Shi Tuanwei, general manager of Transsion’s TEX AI centre, a joint laboratory in Shenzhen that was set up last year by the handset maker and Taiwanese semiconductor design firm MediaTek.
In the Alibaba Cloud statement, Shi said the “optimisation of inferencing energy consumption” has become a major challenge for integrating AI models on devices. AI inferencing is the process that a trained model uses to draw conclusions or solve tasks based on brand-new live data.
Advertisement