Google-backed AI startup aims to take on Siri
- By Guo Yiming
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 19, 2017
Three years after Spike Jonze's Oscar-nominated futuristic film "Her" amazed the world with its operating system serving as a personal assistant that can carry on seamless conversations with humans and even fall in love, the AI-powered technology depicted in the film seems to be not that far away.
![Li Zhifei, founder and CEO of Mobvoi [Photo/China.org.cn]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20170419/b8aeed990a581a611e1d0b.jpg "Li Zhifei, founder and CEO of Mobvoi [Photo/China.org.cn]") |
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Li Zhifei, founder and CEO of Mobvoi [Photo/China.org.cn] |
Mobvoi, a Beijing-based artificial intelligence startup backed by tech giant Google, has launched a virtual personal assistant (VPA), an app which offers real time and in-depth interactions and personalized services just like "Samantha" in the film.
"I can understand what you say, always know the answer and the answer exists in my brain and is stored in the cloud," said the Samantha-like assistant in "her" introduction about the software at a product launch ceremony in Beijing on April 18.
It can search information and contents and provide all-round services like booking a restaurant, making phone calls, translating and giving directions, said Li Zhifei, founder and CEO of the 4-year-old AI tech firm. "The assistant knows about your favorite music, coffee flavors and can always remind you about your daily schedule."
The app is available to connect with your wearable devices, mobile phones, home furnishings and cars."
On a live demo comparing Mobvoi's app Wenwen with the popularized virtual assistant Siri on iOS-enabled devices, the former proved to be more readily available in making personalized interactions with the users and is able to consolidate known facts accumulated from previous talks and offer smart answers in scenario-specific conditions.
With the newly-launched app that aims to make people's lives easier, Li hoped that it can better define the next generation of human-computer interaction.
Ranging from software and hardware gadgets, the startup has launched a full portfolio of devices and services including AI-powered devices like Ticwatch, Ticmirror, Tichome and Ticrobot. It intends to go toe-to-toe with global competitors including Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and Microsoft's Cortana.
In his annual government work report delivered on March 5, Premier Li Keqiang expressed the government's steadfast support for emerging industries, saying that the country "will accelerate R&D on and commercialization of new materials, artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, bio-pharmacy, 5G mobile communications and other technologies."
The country's top three internet giants -- Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent -- (known as the BAT) have already announced their plans whilst pumping in huge amounts of investment into the technologies of the future.
The company announced it had secured a US$180 million investment fund with Volkswagen to make vehicles smarter with AI-powered technology.
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