Two Chinese tech giants forge AI alliance with eye on Apple

Huawei Technologies, the world's largest telecommunications equipment supplier, has forged an artificial intelligence (AI) alliance with Chinese internet search provider Baidu in a move that ratchets up the competition against Apple in leading the future of smartphones. The strategic cooperation with Huawei will kick off the AI-powered intelligent devices era, said Robin Li Yanhong, Baidu's chairman and chief executive, at the joint launch of their AI pact in Beijing on Thursday. There is much to look forward to an alliance between a smartphone company and an AI company, he said. The goal is to foster a new mobile and AI ecosystem by leveraging Huawei's hiAI platform and Baidu Brain, a compendium of the company's AI assets and services, and combine hardware and software to provide global consumers with new smart service experiences, according to the two companies. That would give Shenzhen-based Huawei, China's biggest smartphone brand, with an important edge in competing against Apple and other major players in the global mobile phone market, which will demand more devices with on-board AI capabilities over the next few years.