ByteDance Intensifies Regulation of AI Smartphone Following App Restrictions
ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has enacted more stringent controls on its AI-integrated smartphone, the Nubia M153, subsequent to several major applications in China limiting the device’s voice-command functionalities.
The organization announced a reduction in the capabilities of Doubao, the intelligent assistant that operates on this device.
In a declaration released on Friday, ByteDance outlined its plan to prevent the Nubia M153 from accessing features meant exclusively for human users.
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The company is also disabling the assistant’s access to financial applications, including banking and payment platforms, as well as suspending AI features in competitive gaming to maintain fair competition.
These actions followed restrictions imposed by a number of leading platforms on Doubao’s functionality, notably Alipay, a payment service operated by Ant Group, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding, which also owns the South China Morning Post.
The Nubia M153, initially introduced as a trial product, has garnered significant interest among early adopters, providing a touchless method for device control. Users can verbally command the phone to execute actions, such as autonomously posting on social media.
Chen Tang, a 21-year-old freelancer and user of the Nubia M153, reported being unable to operate several popular apps, including Pinduoduo, Alibaba’s Taobao, Alipay, and Ele.me, through Doubao, which is integrated within the phone’s operating system.
While he can still manually log in to these services, using Doubao renders his accounts restricted.
“It possesses a global memory capable of tracking activity across the device, essentially retaining comprehensive information about you,” Tang stated, explaining why he is not yet inclined to entirely replace his iPhone Pro Max with Doubao.
The Nubia M153, available at a price of 3,499 yuan (approximately US$494), was launched as a “technology preview version” on ZTE’s website, which cautioned that the device is geared toward industry professionals and its features may not be fully developed. ZTE collaborated with ByteDance in the phone’s production.
Some users have voiced concerns on social media that their accounts were frozen after employing Doubao’s voice-command features with popular applications.
Despite this, the food delivery platform Meituan and ByteDance’s own short video application, Douyin, remain operable via Doubao without issues.
Previously, numerous users reported that utilizing the AI assistant features with WeChat could lead to app crashes, blocked logins, or even account suspensions.
On Wednesday, ByteDance announced that it had disabled the AI assistant’s ability to manage WeChat, attributing this to the aforementioned login complications.
The company emphasized that it is collaborating with developers to establish “more predictable guidelines” to avert “blanket restrictions that impede users’ legitimate AI usage.”
ByteDance assured that the device does not store screen content or operational processes on its servers and that such data will not be utilized for model training. Nevertheless, some users, including Tang, continue to harbor privacy concerns.
Source link: Uk.news.yahoo.com.
