Alibaba to team up with Honor in race to build AI agentic devices

Alibaba and Honor will deepen their partnership on an AI-powered operating system for devices, with a joint announcement expected at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. The collaboration aims to accelerate development of 'AI agentic devices' as competition in China's AI phone market intensifies.

Alibaba to team up with Honor in race to build AI agentic devices Huawei spin-off Honor has been developing what it calls a ‘next-generation terminal operating system’, known as Agentic OS Wency Chen /author/wency-chen in Shanghai Alibaba Group Holding and Honor are set to deepen their tie-up over an operating system for AI-powered devices, as competition in the nascent “AI phone” genre gains momentum in China. World Artificial Intelligence Conference https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3360404/xi-jinping-attend-world-ai-conference-first-time-china-elevates-tech-push?module=inline&pgtype=article WAIC , which kicks off on Friday in Shanghai, alongside demonstrations of new agent capabilities developed by both, according to people familiar with the matter. Shenzhen-based Honor, spun off from Huawei Technologies in 2020, will host a sub-forum at WAIC on Saturday titled “From digital screens to embodied intelligence”, CEO Li Jian said in a post on social media platform Weibo on Tuesday. High-profile speakers will include Xu Zhuhong, head of multimodal interaction at Alibaba’s Token Foundry unit; Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired; Xu Hao, head of research and development for Qualcomm China; and Liu Jingkang, founder of action-camera maker Insta360. Robot Phone. https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3345042/chinas-honor-debuts-robot-phone-and-humanoid-companion-push-ai-hardware?module=inline&pgtype=article The device, which features a foldable robotic gimbal arm, was formally unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in March but has yet to enter mass production or go on sale. Alibaba and Honor did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.