HTC outs an always listening, dual-screen smartphone with its own AI assistant

Just when you thought HTC might be ready to hang up on its smartphone efforts, the Android underdog is turning up the volume and announcing what it describes as a "new direction" -- in the form of a series of smartphones preloaded with its own AI assistant. While mobile phones were originally a device for talking to other humans, before smartphones plus touchscreens turned devices (and people) into texting machines, analysts are spying signs of a renaissance for voice -- as a control mechanism to speed up interacting with increasingly complex devices. Every major smartphone device and OS maker has their own AI these days, from Apple's Siri, to Microsoft's Cortana, to Samsung's Viv, to Amazon's Alexa, to Google's Assistant. HTC is finally following suit, unveiling what it's calling the "HTC Sense companion" at a launch event today. The company teased the launch of the new U series smartphones last month, hinting at the "For U" personalization it had in the pipeline.