Although in 2023, OpenAI has launched an app version of ChatGPT on the mobile terminal, which can make it more convenient for users to use ChatGPT's conversation service on their mobile phones, and at the end of the year, it was also announced that the voice function on the app version has been opened to all users for free.
But it must be said that as an "AI assistant", ChatGPT is still not convenient enough on the mobile phone, I don't believe you compare the voice assistant that comes with the mobile phone, which is usually one key, one swipe, one call can call out for a conversation, which is definitely more convenient than opening the ChatGPT App, clicking on the voice or entering the box.
OpenAI sees this as well.
Last month, in version 1.2023.352 of the December 2023 update, ChatGPT on Android added a new activity of "com.openai.voice.assistant.AssistantActivity", which directly points to the voice assistant function of the Android system. In addition, a series of related codes and information have been added to this release.
Although the new event mentioned above has not yet been officially activated, even if it is forced, only the animation that has not yet been completed will appear, and then ...... There is no then. But there's no doubt that OpenAI can't have added this code and information for no reason.
图/ Android Authority
Not surprisingly, we will soon see that ChatGPT on Android will be able to be set as the "default assistant app", and users can call out ChatGPT and directly engage in voice conversations by calling out the system's built-in assistant, such as long-pressing the power button or gesture operations.
From this point of view, there is not much time left for mobile AI assistants such as Google Assistant, Apple Siri, and OPPO Xiaobu...... Is it?
ChatGPT rang off with a cannon shot, sending a large model moment of the mobile phone AI assistant
OpenAI launched ChatGPT on the web as early as the end of November 2022, and soon set off a "whirlwind" in the technology circle, the core of which is its strong natural language understanding ability, which in layman's terms: can understand human speech and speak human language.
Soon after, the wave sparked by ChatGPT intensified, sweeping through governments and industries, and just two months later, it surpassed the 100 million mark in monthly active users. At the same time, countless people have also seen the wide application prospects of the large model technology behind ChatGPT, which is emerging in an endless stream, and the application layer is also looking for and exploring.
Mobile AI assistants are one of the first opportunities to be seen.
In March, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella complained to the Financial Times that Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's own Cortana (Chinese name: Cortana) and the recognized top-notch Google Assistant, one of these voice assistants counts as one:
They are as stupid as stones.
Nadella, Photo/Microsoft
Siri's co-founder, Adam Cheyer, also admits that ChatGPT's ability to understand complex information makes existing voice assistants look stupid. It's the problem, but it's also the opportunity.
At the beginning of the year, we introduced some attempts by individual developers in the article "Can ChatGPT Make Siri and Xiao Ai Smarter?" - to connect Xiao Ai, Siri and other commonly used mobile phone assistants to ChatGPT, and we also made a judgment at that time: the entry of giants is not far away.
By the second half of the year, mobile phone manufacturers have successively added Xiaoyi (Huawei), Xiaobu (OPPO), Xiaoai (Xiaomi), and XiaoV (vivo) to the large-scale system upgrade, and Google is developing Google Assistant with local access to Gemini large models. Even Apple, which has always been "out of fashion", is rumored to be integrating generative AI into Siri and is expected to make its official debut at this year's WWDC.
The trend is coming, and it can't be stopped, and following the trend is the king.
Photo / OPPO
But another problem is that ChatGPT (OpenAI), Copilot (Microsoft), Wenxin Yiyan (Baidu), and many more ChatGPT-like AI conversation services will face the same trend after all.
Mobile phone rivers and lakes, who is the master of ups and downs
ChatGPT has already been downloaded more than 10 million times on Google Play, with a rating of 4.7 and a 4.9 rating on the App Store. Behind the high score is the praise and recognition of most users, and it is also the level of GPT-3.5/4 in the quality of model output.
Photo/Apple
In contrast, although mobile phone manufacturers have generally begun to access the cloud and device-side large models on the system's built-in AI assistants, user evaluations are not high, and their capabilities in logical reasoning, language understanding and other aspects are weak.
In fact, it is impossible for manufacturers to train and adopt models with too large parameter scales, and the core is that the cost is too high and it is difficult to establish a reasonable charging model. Just imagine, ChatGPT, Wenxin Yiyan, etc. can use subscription fees, but the system's own AI assistant is difficult to persuade users to pay for subscriptions, and it is even easy to cause condemnation.
In other words, mobile phone manufacturers' own AI assistants are difficult to compare with ChatGPT. But mobile phone manufacturers also have their own big advantages.
We have talked many times before about the inevitable trend of "end-side large models on the computer (mobile phones, PCs)", for example, in "Redefining smart phones, will large models be a false proposition for mobile phone manufacturers?", it is pointed out:
The data processing of the device-side large model is on the device side, and the user's personal data will not be uploaded to the cloud server, so that the user can rest assured that the data will be handed over to the AI to learn the Xi, which can provide a prerequisite for the mobile phone AI assistant to truly become a personal assistant.
Secondly, although Google has opened the permission of the voice assistant to the third party for a long time on Android, and users can set the third-party voice assistant, such as Microsoft Cortana, Samsung Bixby, etc., as the default voice assistant, which can easily make outgoing calls, but in fact, the permissions and interfaces obtained by third-party applications are still not comparable with the Google Assistant that comes with it.
图/ Gadget Hacks
In other words, even if ChatGPT is set as the default voice assistant in the future, its actual influence at the system level may still be limited, and it cannot perform a series of operations on the system through instructions like its own AI assistant, such as voice jump navigation, reminders, etc. Perhaps, the biggest benefit of ChatGPT is that it can call out more conveniently, which is of course also crucial, but it is always difficult to become a real "digital assistant" for users.
And this is still the "most open" Google, Apple and domestic manufacturers such as OPPO, Huawei, and Xiaomi will not open up to third-party applications such as ChatGPT at the system level. At last year's WWDC, Apple announced that users no longer need to "Hey Siri" to call Siri, just say "Siri", and domestic mobile phone manufacturers have been lowering the threshold for using their own AI assistants in the past few years and adding more features.
In the rivers and lakes of mobile phones, it is still difficult for the dragon to face the head snake.
Of course, disruption in the tech industry often starts not from the center, but from the periphery.
Photo/OpenAI
On January 5, The Verge received an email from OpenAI revealing that the long-awaited GPT store will be officially launched next week, and GPTs developers will be able to "sell" their GPT (based on GPT-4) for profit. (For more information about the GPTs program, see the article "ChatGPT 2023: Ushering in a New Era of Artificial Intelligence", which is partially introduced.) ）
Coupled with ChatGPT's existing plug-in ecosystem, it's hard to say if this will be another "App Store-style" change that will disrupt existing computing systems:
At that time, it may be a dimensionality reduction strike.
CES (Las Vegas International Consumer Electronics Show) 2024 is about to be grandly opened, and Lei Technology will send a reporting team led by "One Tianming" to Las Vegas, Nevada, USA CES 2024 on-site reporting, so stay tuned.