Setback for Google As Huawei Builds AI Assistant

Alphabet Inc. subsidiary Google's (GOOG) artificial intelligence (AI) assistant is failing to catch on. A Bloomberg report this morning states that Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei, which uses Google's Android operating system for its phones, is developing its own voice-activated AI assistant. According to the report, Huawei's AI assistant, which will use local languages in China for communication, is targeted at the Chinese market and is intended to compete with the likes of Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) Siri and Amazon.com, This is the second such announcement after Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (SSNLF), which also uses Google's mobile operating system in its phones, announced its own digital assistant last year. While Samsung has the largest number of mobile phone shipments, Huawei is ranked third. Huawei has also announced that it will pre-install Alexa, Amazon's voice assistant, on its Mate 9 phones.