Glory launched the Magic V2 RSR Porsche design to the world during MWC24, and won the GLOMO best in show award. After MWC24, Sina Technology held an interview with Glory Zhao Ming. This conversation started with AI mobile phones. He reviewed the history of AI research and development that Glory started in 2016. Glory Zhao Ming said it was too late to make AI mobile phones now.
At the same time, Glory Zhao Ming defined four levels of AI mobile phones, explained Glory's understanding and R&D route of AI from the system, stand-alone, application, network side and other aspects, and mentioned that AI will inject new quality productivity of Glory into the soul.
The following is the transcript of this interview:
Q: President Ming, Ba Zhan is back. How did you feel when I saw the news that the Maigc V2 RSR Porsche Design Edition we are using won the GLOMO best in show on the last day?
Zhao Ming: At that time, I was just upstairs preparing to communicate with customers, and then temporarily notified me that you would come down to receive an award. I didn't realize how important this award was at that time. Then when I came down, I saw the CEO of GSMA, the media, and many people standing at our booth waiting for me to award this award. At that time, we saw that we had won the biggest award of GLOMO2024, the Oscar award of the so-called communication, and then we exchanged views on the spot. In general, I think this is a recognition of Glory's innovation in the field of folding screen and AI, and it also encourages us to continue to move forward along our established strategy and direction.
Q: Brother Ming is modest. This award is very important. In fact, it is rare. In my impression, one Chinese manufacturer that won this award is Huawei. In the spring of 2019, it was Huawei's Mate X. Five years later, another Chinese manufacturer won this award with another folding machine. So many people will ask, is this intentional or careless?
Zhao Ming: Frankly speaking, we now think it's quite unexpected. Because although we won many awards in last year's GSMA (sponsored) MWC and this year's MWC, we were still surprised to win the largest award of GLOMO. Because we saw that his manufacturer was also in the process of promotion, I didn't have any psychological preparation when winning the award. From our perspective, you may be too deliberate to pursue this award, but it may not be possible to get it. But when you go back to the fundamentals of innovation, technology and AI in a down-to-earth way, we do some work and continue to work forward, this is a natural process. Now I want to think about the glorious development and innovation in the past few years. This time, I have a look at the (reasons for winning the award) awarded to the glory. First, in the whole design innovation and experience of our Maigc V2 RSR Porsche Design Edition, we really achieved the thickness of the folding screen of the straight board machine, which is the first time in the industry. Second, it is the application of AI on mobile phones, and its application of AI focuses on platform level and system level thinking. Because in this MWC, in fact, all manufacturers are talking about AI, but the glorious AI is unique and different from other manufacturers (thinking and exploration). We use AI to reconstruct the operating system. So these two reasons may not be your on-site surprise or your doing some work (which can be achieved), because it is a way for hundreds of analysts to vote by secret ballot. For the inspiration of glory, it is still a matter of steadfast innovation and breakthrough on the bottom and basic capabilities of technology.
Q: I am also very impressed because after four or five years, two Chinese companies, Huawei and Glory, actually have some origins. In fact, you also talked about the relationship between glory and Huawei before. In fact, I want to ask, in the present view, what do you think is the difference between the development track or direction of glory and Huawei?
Zhao Ming: I think if we talk about Huawei and glory, we have many similarities, because we really have a lot of inheritance from the concept, values and culture of R&D, which is also the most valuable pursuit of glory. At the same time, when Glory redefines and launches its own new strategy, in the terminal field, we will see that in fact, we (both sides) have a huge difference in the concept of development and many innovative logics. When we released Maigc 5 in March 2023, we proposed a new strategy, which is both inheritance and today's glorious development, In the era of AI, we need to use AI to reconstruct the operating system, hardware experience, and consumer service experience. We say we need to create a flow of services across different hardware devices and operating systems, and use AI to enable it. We want to create a better flow of services and consumer experience for consumers who are more than Apple and across mobile phones, tablets, and PCs.
At the same time, in the era of AI, when you reconstruct the operating equipment to really let the mobile phone understand you, AI has changed from AI applications and services a few years ago to AI dominated or AI reconstructs the operating system, so that the mobile phone can become a part of you and an extension of human organs. The more you use it, the better you use it. When we develop mobile phones and AI from this logic, We are different from all mobile platforms and manufacturers in the industry. Huawei has not followed this path, Apple has not followed this path, even Samsung in the industry, and all Chinese manufacturers have not followed this path. We have embarked on a relatively unique development path, so if Huawei won the GLOMO award in 2019 and won the award again five years later, I think it is recognition of Chinese manufacturers and innovation.
This time, the industry has given us the recognition of Oscar in the communication industry. In some cases, there is a kind of rebirth, but for glory, this is a new starting point and incentive for us.
Q: After my tour in Bazaar this time, I felt that there were only four words: "AI AI AI AI". In AI, everyone was talking about AI. In the mobile phone industry, I also picked some leaders from other manufacturers on the scene. Some people said that this year was the first year of mobile AI, and some people felt that it had already started. What do you think about it? Is it the first year?
Zhao Ming: If this year is the first year, its layout must be backward. For glory, we say the first year of AI is 2016. At that time, when the first generation of Glory Magic was released, we said that it was the first year of AI to open the door of mobile phone intelligence. In fact, in that era, the glorious value proposition and one of my core ideas was to use AI to reconstruct future services and consumer experience. In fact, the middle route was interrupted for a while, but when the glory was independent, we could come back quickly.
Therefore, in terms of our organizational structure and our AI investment, we believe that AI is divided into four layers. The first layer is the system layer, which is enabled by AI across devices and operating systems. We say that different operating systems use AI to make decisions. You have Android operating system, Windows operating system and IoT lite OS corresponding operating system. But when using AI unified brain to make decisions, resources are gathered to consumers or users. This is cross device system level AI.
The second level is the stand-alone version, which uses AI to reconstruct the operating system. We say Android, the glorious MaigcOS. In fact, the idea is to reconstruct the operating system, so that the more you use the phone, the better you use it. The human-computer interaction of intention recognition is typical.
The third level is some applications of AI on mobile phones. In fact, using mobile phones to cut pictures and use mobile phones to render photos has also existed for a long time.
The fourth level is the presentation of network AI and network model on mobile phones.
In fact, many manufacturers, or almost all other platforms, are working on the third and fourth levels. Glory is now working on the four levels. We believe that the core capabilities and values of mobile phone merchants should be in the first and second levels.
Q: Before and after Bazaar, some manufacturers actually shouted slogans that we want All in AI, and we don't even make traditional smart phones. I didn't expect that smart phones have become a traditional product. It seems that glory didn't say such harsh words. What do you think of their propaganda or practice?
Zhao Ming: In fact, no matter what slogans he shouts, many people shout slogans for the needs of marketing and market communication. More importantly, the four levels of AI I just talked about, and what levels it works on. The overwhelming majority of (manufacturers) 'efforts are in the third and fourth layers, namely, some AI applications on mobile phones, as well as presenting some network AI on mobile phones or providing an interface to provide some computing power. If the form is these two layers, what you call All in AI is still a shallow layer. If it is in the first and second layers, it is the long-term consumer experience of building AI for the future.
So, that is to say, for glory, we still focus on building the lowest level capabilities facing the future in a down-to-earth manner, building what we call the first and second layers of capabilities. How many years has our AI been deployed? Today, we have launched MagicOS 8.0 again, which has initially realized some of our ideas in 2016. Today, we can give consumers a relatively reasonable presentation. Let's say that the human-computer interaction of intention recognition: gesture, breath awakening, plus eye movement tracking, AI's ability to combine hardware, that new human-computer interaction combination, We are ahead of all manufacturers.
But today, frankly speaking, everything has just begun. This year, you are only All in AI, and you are still on the third and fourth floors. The gap will become bigger and bigger.
Q: Last year, in fact, during the Shanghai MWC, also known as the minibus show, I heard your speech and mentioned our end side AI capabilities. In fact, in 2023, various major models will be available, especially in the second half of the year. Then I feel that AI will rise and fall very quickly in the same year and even in the second half of last year, Has mobile+AI changed what it wants to do and its direction?
Zhao Ming: For glory, I think the direction has not changed. First, at the operating system level, we are now focusing on the second layer, the end side AI, to reconstruct the operating system with AI. In fact, there are two types of platform level AI, one is relatively low in computing power, but it requires AI to reconstruct all aspects of the operating system. For example, CPU, GPU and other computing power should be optimized to achieve the best resource scheduling. Second, platform level AI, as your avatar, assistant or part of human organs in the background, has been operating to do background analysis and learning, predict your services, and prepare corresponding resources for you.
In terms of this work, it has been evolving and developing all the time, and we can use it on flagship computers, midrange computers, and even entry-level computers in the future. Glory should be committed to making the AI experience ubiquitous, not only for flagship computers, so you can see our MagicOS arbitrary door, that is, the Magic series Digital series and even our glorious X series can support it.
There is also the big model, which requires relatively high computing power. Today, Magic 6 supports 7 billion parameter big models, that is, more complex AI applications. Different models must be platform level AI (deep fit), calling and supporting different capabilities and services. So in the future, there can be a variety of big models on mobile phones, Support various services.
The core of Glory is to provide these underlying capabilities to future developers as operating systems. So whether you want to cut corners, write articles, or do corresponding evaluation and analysis, different big models will develop a variety of applications based on Glory's AI capabilities in the future. Therefore, we say that based on system level and platform level AI, the future application level AI will be in a myriad of forms.
Q: I think we have been talking about platform level AI since last year, but to be honest, I think it is more difficult, even several orders of magnitude, to build platform level AI than to build an application ecosystem. After all, Glory is an enterprise that has just been independent for several years. Do we really have such ability? What confidence do you have to say that?
Zhao Ming: This is when you build the first brick and the first foundation, you need to integrate this thinking. So why do other mobile phone platforms today only do application level AI? Because when it needs to rewrite the original software system and operating system, it will cost a lot. The initial architecture must be modified, and even the architecture may need to be modified. This may have a great impact on your current research and development system, and even your consumption experience.
But for Glory, we just met an opportunity, that is, when we were independent, we would change our operating system from Hongmeng to reconstruct our software capabilities based on Android. So at that time, we would adjust the organizational structure and system of Glory, and we would use our AI capabilities to do a new software system again, Therefore, MagicOS 8.0 is a three-year development. We started to build platform level AI in 7.0, but there are relatively few corresponding services below.
But what did we offer at that time? At that time, we pushed out the geographical fence, the low-power geographical fence, which is also the underlying and core technology of future AI applications. When you arrive near the express cabinet, it can recognize that when you arrive at the airport and subway station, these low-power geographical fences, Magic Live, and platform level AI are all basic services that have been running all the time.
So the glorious battery is good. Why should we develop energy technology much better than others? Because the services provided by AI's computing power are basic capabilities. So you can see that we have made full technical reserves in the low-power electronic fence, platform level AI and power system supporting computing power. When we are ready, we will experience everything in OS 8.0 and Magic 6 and upgrade step by step.
Other manufacturers do not have the long-term thinking and preparation in the past few years. Today, they can only work on the third and fourth layers, and on some application level AI.
Q: You mentioned several layers just now. In your opinion, AI has at least four layers. To be honest, when it comes to users, I asked people around me before I came here, and they said that AI seemed to be great, but what we are using now is cutting and translating functions that seemed to be available before. The manufacturer said I am called AI mobile phone, but they don't think so. In your opinion, what kind of mobile phone is AI mobile phone? When can we use this kind of mobile phone?
Zhao Ming: In fact, for the glorious solution, I think it is a new one after MagicOS 8.0. I think it is defined as "real AI mobile phone". Because earlier, we actually supported many AI services, or called MagicOS 7.0 the initial stage of AI. Today, we can only be an initial stage or a slightly advanced stage. But if it is the advanced stage of AI in the future, that is, when you use the mobile phone, it will be ubiquitous, but you don't realize that it will interfere with your life too much, that is, it will appear when you think it should appear, which is a natural process. Now you can see that our eye tracking is a new human-computer interaction. We have an intention recognition. When you have information, you select it, and it will analyze the key information behind it. Your life and usage habits match what services you may need, and the human-computer interaction of intention recognition. But what we are still developing and preparing in recent years is multimodal human-computer interaction. What is it? In terms of hardware, such as using breath to wake up, when we talk like this, the phone will not respond. You have to say hello YOYO, but this is very inconvenient. With breath, glory is the first in the industry. What are we still doing? Eye tracking. When you look at it with your eyes, you can see exactly where your eyes are positioned on the screen. In fact, Apple's Vision Pro is practical on AI glasses, but it is within a few centimeters. Glory can reach 30 centimeters. With such a small screen, I can accurately identify where I am looking. But you should know that in the future AI era, intention recognition will be combined with this multimodal human-computer interaction. For example, this is a small screen. When I stare at it, I will look at it, and it knows that I am staring at it. I snap my fingers, maybe the screen will open, and when I look at it, I wave my hand, it will switch to a channel. The future is the AI era. People are the center. It assesses and analyzes your needs, and lets all kinds of electronic devices and solutions run around you. This is the experience and application of the future AI era, not just that I will pick a picture. I will have photoshop and beautiful pictures in the future. I just need to provide it with platform level AI capabilities, These professional companies will do better than our hardware companies.
So for example, when taking photos, we will take photos according to the logic of the SLR camera. This kind of presentation of natural optics, but if you want to say that Meitu has different preferences, you can use the map repair software, which must be better than our manufacturers.
Therefore, the concept and logic of Glory for the AI era is to use platform level AI to provide consumers with a variety of convenience and choices across systems and devices. As for services and applications, we will open them to developers, and there will be tens of thousands of applications of AI models in the future.
Q: The words "cross device and ecology" definitely remind people of a brand: Apple. This is what I think is an insurmountable gap or a wall, whether it is a mobile phone or an ecosystem. I have a question. In the past 20 years, Apple has actually confirmed that it has built its own ecosystem. It can get through everything by itself to achieve the best user experience. In the era of AI, do you still think so?
Another question, I mentioned surpassing Apple last year. What do you think is the next step? How is the progress?
Zhao Ming: Glory has always been a figure of Tang Jike's German style. The strategy we have defined or formulated is that we are practicing step by step. For example, last year we said to break the dominance of Apple, which is not a slogan. Many people are shouting to surpass Apple, but what are the elements needed to surpass Apple? What capabilities do you need to build? Where is Apple strong? Only if you evaluate carefully and make unremitting efforts can you match strategy with implementation. You see, we say to break the dominance of Apple. Where is Apple stronger? Apple's ecology. Apple has a unified ARM architecture chip on mobile phones, tablets, and laptops, and its OS operating system integration. Its closed ecology brings many consumers a seamless experience, which is its advantage. What about glory? It is also an open star map. We firmly believe in the global open system and the combination of China's industrial chain and global innovation, which is a glorious logic. When we compete with Apple's closeness and defeat Apple with openness, we said OK. Today we use AI to enable mobile phones, and use AI to enable Windows laptops, The devices that enable IoT include wearable devices. Then I use a brain and AI to make decisions, make their connection better than Apple's connection, make services and cross screen applications better than Apple's experience, and compete with Apple's closed ecology with an open ecology.
Second, I have built the best mobile phone that understands you best in the AI era. I am better than Apple in terms of screen, hardware and screen eye protection experience. In terms of communication, I am better at satellite communication, mobile communication and short-range communication than Apple. I also need to compete with Apple in terms of photos, endurance and other aspects. Breaking Apple's dominance is not a slogan. It is my consistency from strategy to implementation. Apple is very strong, but I do it step by step.
This year, more users switched from Apple to Glory mobile phones than last year. When I released Magic V2 folding screen in Europe this year, I saw that a large number of Apple users began to move to Glory folding screen phones in Britain and Italy. Today's figure is very encouraging for us. I can do better in 10 years.
Q: During the grand exhibition, we also released Magic 6 and Magic V2 RSR. In fact, these two products have been released in China for some time, especially the Magic 6 series. What interesting or impressive user comments do you see, whether domestic or foreign users in Bazaar this time?
Zhao Ming: From the media and consumer level, offline sales began after we released it overseas. The first batch of users are already using it. First, they think the endurance of Glory is too strong, because they are users of Apple and Samsung. Second, their evaluation of the glory is Magic Portal, which is called Anygate in China and Magic Portal overseas. They think that this kind of intention recognition, this kind of AI application and experience are unprecedented. Today, because there are not as many services accessed overseas as in China, they imagine massive Internet services in the future. Because today on my mobile phone, we installed 100 or 200 applications, but you will find that the real daily use is only a dozen, and a large number of applications are silent. The moment you installed it, you forgot everything you liked. But when I was reactivating and helping me guess the recommended services I needed, they felt that the experience they brought to them was actually improved a lot.
Third, what they particularly like is the eagle eye camera. People have been jumping or putting various kinds of poses on our booth all the time. They think that we are all comparing static pictures, taking various kinds of pictures with long exposure, and taking the night as the day or more clearly. But in this kind of sports scene, especially European and American people like to surf and swim at the seaside in summer, ski in winter, and then street basketball, football and other sports. The effect of capturing this kind of sports is the best. I think these points are the most impressive in this press conference, media interviews and consumer feedback.
Q: I talked a lot about AI today. My last question ends with AI. Recently, there is a hot word called "new quality productivity". AI must be a part or representative of new quality productivity. What role will AI play in the process of glorifying the entire product line? Or how important do you think it is?
Zhao Ming: I think it is AI that injects the soul into the glorious new quality productivity. In fact, it focuses on how to give full play to the hardware capabilities in the era of AI, so that consumers can have a better experience. In fact, AI also puts forward a great demand for many hardware innovations. For example, the more powerful my AI is, in fact, one is the processing power of the chip, the other is the selection and learning of data, but where else? Energy also puts forward high requirements for the development of battery technology, because you still have to do thinness, for future materials (R&D and exploration), because the folding screen for the presentation of AI must be the larger the screen, the stronger the computing power, and the better the consumer experience and presentation. In fact, we use this line to make our future innovation in hardware phones, consumer experience, Actually, they are linked together.
You can say that it is regarded as the soul. Why should we evolve more powerful processors in the future? In the whole chip development in the future, will CPU, GPU or NPU be more important? In fact, AI has put forward higher demands, so I think that the layout of Glory on AI has the deepest understanding, which also makes these partners like Qualcomm, Microsoft, Google, Intel willing to participate in the process of Glory competing with Apple's closed ecology with an open ecology. It is also because of our leadership in this area, It is of great value and dedication to the entire industry chain.
Q: OK, thank you. We talked a lot about AI today, and we look forward to seeing you on March 18.
Zhao Ming: OK, welcome to our press conference on March 18.
Q: Good.
