Not too long ago, artificial intelligence (AI) seems like an idea from a distant, unreachable future. In old sci-fi flicks, AI is often portrayed as robots—mostly evil robots that will bring havoc to the world. But, AI means so much more. It has even evolved into an everyday companion that complements human lifestyle.
In mobile technology, global smartphone brand Vivo is among the companies that maximized AI in its recent flagship units. But this concept is not new. AI was theorized decades ago after it was introduced by American computer scientist pioneer and inventor John McCarthy at the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence in 1956. The conference was formed to discuss ideas on what they called thinking machines. He was eventually named the Father of AI.
McCarthy eventually became part of the Stanford University’s Computer Science Department and published a document breaking down his understanding of AI. He wrote in 2007 that AI is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines or intelligent computer programs. In other words, AI will try to understand, simulate, and mimic human intelligence. McCarthy then said some of the applications of AI include game playing, speech recognition, understanding natural language, computer vision, expert systems, and heuristic classification.
Fast forward to 2018, AI has already penetrated various fields including the smartphone industry that basically touched on McCarthy’s defined applications of AI to make mobile life much easier.
Strategy Analytics Inc., a company that provides data and analysis, business consulting, advisory, and strategic market research services on a global scale, estimated that smartphone processors with on-device AI functionality such as Qualcomm grew almost three-fold year-over-year in the first quarter of 2018.
The Vivo leveled up its AI features on the all-new NEX
For instance, the latest Vivo NEX launched is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Octa Core 2.8 GHz. This has the 3rd Generation Hexagon™ 685 DSP that supports on-device AI processing to deliver richer camera, voice, XR, and gaming experiences.
Meanwhile, Vivo’s latest flagship smartphone in the Philippines, the Vivo X21, is run by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 AIE Octacore 2.2 GHz (4 core) + 1.8 GHz (4 core). This chipset has an AI-powered engine with Hexagon Vector Processor, Adreno GPU, and Kryo CPU. It also has software features that make on-device AI experiences possible in camera, audio, security, and gaming.
Going beyond the AI-powered chipsets, Vivo’s first flagship smartphone in 2018 was the V9 with a 24-megapixel AI front camera. The selfie camera allowed users to maximize every shot with the use of various AI features like the Face Beauty, the AR Stickers, and Selfie Lighting.
The integration of AI and mobile technology proved that the rise of AI should not be something to be afraid of. Now that AI is becoming ubiquitous in smartphones, one can’t help but ask, what are the next developments users should look forward to?