Was your home stolen?
It's also breaking the ice.
In the past few days, the engineering prototype collaborated by Doubao has become a hit, selling out as soon as it was launched, with over 3000 phones being speculated in the secondary market to nearly 10,000 yuan.
Why is it so popular?
Because this engineering prototype from Doubao focuses on the AI phone gimmick:
It is integrated into the existing phone system at the system and underlying level, achieving cross-application operations and automated task processing.
In simple terms:
AI is no longer just an app; it is part of the system itself.
Pick up the phone and say a word, and you can order with price comparisons across the internet, book tickets, order food, and even perform more complex tasks, basically meeting people's imagination of an AI phone assistant.
So it has been sought after by tech enthusiasts as soon as it came out, but there is some confusion as to why it can be publicly sold since it is just an engineering prototype.
Of course, along with the enthusiasm, controversies have followed.
The main concerns are several:
The first is user privacy.
It's been nearly ten years since a certain CEO of Baidu claimed that Chinese users are willing to exchange privacy for convenience, and now Chinese users are facing this choice again.
System-level cross-application tasks mean that AI can obtain the highest level of permissions, such as chat records, payment information, geographic locations, etc. Will this data be uploaded? Will it be used to train large models?
Today, Doubao issued a statement:
Further restricting the use of financial applications.
However, due to being too advanced, national regulations may not be perfect, and privacy issues in this area are still considerable, especially in the strictest Europe, which is simply unimaginable.
The second is application data.
Even if users don't mind, major application vendors are also reluctant.
It’s equivalent to being stolen; the entry point is intercepted, and the moat is gone.
WeChat, Alipay, and many banking apps have been taken offline or prompted with risk warnings during use because they triggered security policies.
It’s easy to imagine:
Major apps are laying out their own AI ecosystems and are unlikely to allow other AI to intervene.
So, wanting to collaborate across applications is not just a security issue; the main issue is still about interests.
Unless regulations are established at the national level.
The third is the terminal platform.
This time Doubao collaborated with small manufacturers, mainly considering this issue, as other mainstream system vendors have their own AI layouts and will surely use self-developed AI systems, not third-party systems.
So:
Doubao’s actions this time are equivalent to challenging the vast majority of application vendors, but it may also be a groundbreaking attempt.
This at least validates two key issues:
First, users really like it.
The system-level mobile AI assistant, cross-application operation experience, and a brand-new human-computer interaction experience are no less than a mobile revolution, which is quite attractive to users and also has market appeal.
Secondly, it promotes the improvement of standards.
This breaking of the ice has encountered many problems, including user privacy, data security, and application barriers, which I believe researchers have long been aware of.
But only by doing it and putting the issues on the table can we promote the industry and the country to establish standard regulations.
With user expectations and standardized regulations, a true AI phone assistant may finally appear.
I believe that this kind of 'home stealing' is meaningful.
That's it.
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