AI’s power is worthless without data privacy

HANGZHOU, China — The transformative power of artificial intelligence is worthless if user data isn’t protected, George Zhao, CEO of Chinese smartphone company Honor, said Thursday in an exclusive interview with CNBC.

His comments were apple The company announced this month that it will begin rolling out personalized AI tools to select devices in the US this fall.

Honor already has some AI features integrated, like allowing users to open text messages and other notifications just by seeing them, and linking apps like Yelp directly to navigation and ride-hailing apps, eliminating the copy-and-paste step.

At the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai this week, Honor unveiled new AI tools. Detecting the use of deepfakes in videosSimulates lenses that can reduce myopia during extended screen use.

Zhao emphasized that Honor’s approach is to confine AI operations involving personal data to the smartphone — also known as on-device AI, as opposed to AI tools that use cloud computing to run.

“Without data security and user privacy protection, AI will be worthless,” Zhao said in Chinese, as translated by CNBC. “This has always been one of our value propositions.”

“User data will not be leaked” [the device]”This is a principle we abide by,” Zhao said.

Apple Intelligence, the iPhone’s AI product, claims to do on-device processing and use a “server-based model” for more complex requests. Apple also claims to be working on a new “private cloud computing” Do not store user data.

Honor says the AI ​​on its devices is developed in-house and that the company Baidu and Google For more AI features, see Cloud.

“Overall, my view is that the development of AI to date has two directions,” Zhao said. “Network [cloud] AI is becoming more and more powerful. But we believe on-device AI will become more and more intimate and increasingly insightful in its capabilities and consumer empowerment.”

“This will give consumers more support and enable them to interact with the AI ​​world of the future,” he added.

Zhao noted that many generative AI applications, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, require massive amounts of computing power, far exceeding the battery capacity of a single smartphone.

That means you need to use the cloud. Asking questions Regarding data transmission security.

Balancing AI capabilities with energy usage and data privacy is a “big challenge” for manufacturers, Zhao said.

He said systems that collect large amounts of user data to provide more personalized features become “powerful” objects compared to the individuals using the systems.

“In future smartphone development, our goal is to empower individuals,” Zhao said.

“When objects become powerful, their presence reveals the smallness of the individual. I believe that mobile devices should empower and enable the individual.”

Honor’s Magic V2 flip phone, which was launched in China last summer and in Europe earlier this year, won the “Best Smartphone in Asia” award at Shanghai MWC this week.

The Magic V2 folds up almost as thin as an iPhone.

Honor plans to launch its latest AI-equipped Magic V3 in July.

When asked if the new foldable device would be even thinner, Zhao simply replied, “Of course, we have to challenge ourselves, right?”