ByteDance's AI Smartphone Raises Concerns

AI features on ByteDance smartphones could affect the business models of many "giants" such as Tencent and Alibaba.

ByteDance's Doubao AI assistant on the Nubia M153. Photo: Doubao/X .

ByteDance has just launched an AI-powered smartphone in China. The device has attracted attention from both users and competitors. Not only is the security issue, companies like Tencent and Alibaba are worried that buyers will spend less time on other platforms.

Called Nubia M153, the device was developed by ByteDance in collaboration with ZTE. The product integrates the Doubao assistant based on the AI ​​model of the same name. Users can activate the assistant through the Doubao app, voice or side button.

AI features on M153 include using voice commands to remove backgrounds from photos, remembering users' preferences and personal information. Doubao also supports finding, comparing and ordering products from the lowest-priced platform, although users still have to pay manually.

Privacy concerns

Limited to 30,000 units, the M153 quickly sold out at 3,499 yuan (equivalent to 495 USD ). On the “black market”, the device costs 1,000 yuan more than the listed price.

Immediately after its release, some people reported that the Doubao assistant on M153 was blocked by banking apps, WeChat (Tencent's) platform, Taobao (Alibaba), Alipay (Ant Group) and many other apps.

WeChat stressed that it has not yet blocked Doubao. However, security algorithms can automatically identify this application as dangerous.

“For us, Doubao has too broad access, it can open almost any application without relying on APIs,” a security director at a major Chinese payments platform told Nikkei .

According to this person, one of the biggest concerns from the platform side is liability. If there is a complaint about Doubao transferring money by mistake, the question of whether the user, Doubao or the payment platform is responsible remains unanswered.

Design of Nubia M153. Photo: Wccftech .

He added that financial apps are subject to stricter government control than regular apps. The level of risk control for banks is even greater than for payment platforms.

Data control is also a concern for the platform. In the view of this director, the Chinese government will not let information such as personal savings and lists of regular recipients fall into the hands of a large private technology company like ByteDance.

The head of a major Chinese e-commerce platform said that smartphone makers like Huawei and Xiaomi would not grant Doubao that much access because they are also developing their own AI assistants. This person speculated that this is why ByteDance partnered with smaller phone maker ZTE.

"Fear" of competition

In response to the backlash, ByteDance said it would suspend some of Doubao’s AI features, including gaming, bank transfers, and online payments, a move it said was necessary to give the technology “a more stable, long-term future,” according to a post on Doubao’s WeChat account.

ByteDance stressed that it will continue to cooperate with hardware manufacturers, in part because the company has no plans to develop smartphones itself, thereby building clear and safe AI operating standards.

Doubao is leading the AI ​​assistant market in China. According to QuestMobile , Doubao's monthly active users in the third quarter reached 159 million, surpassing DeepSeek.

Experts say privacy is the biggest reason to limit Doubao on rival platforms. However, according to Nikkei , that is just the tip of the iceberg, because Doubao's ambitions also threaten the business models of other "big guys".

Zhou Hongyi, co-founder of Beijing-based cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360, said the Doubao assistant will directly impact the competitive advantage of major internet companies, which make money based on advertising and the time users spend on the platform.

“The leaders at Meituan and Alibaba are probably having an emergency meeting because when AI can place orders directly, users don’t need to open the app and watch ads anymore,” Zhou emphasized.

Doubao assistant's image scanning feature. Photo: Doubao/X .

Zhou believes tech companies will soon respond. Some apps could redesign their interfaces to make them harder for AI to read, display dynamic pricing, or hide important information behind more complex operations.

Some e-commerce apps may restrict third-party app permissions, forcing users to access content directly. Big tech companies may even develop protocols to limit AI access.

According to Zhou, smartphone companies like Xiaomi and Huawei could launch their own operating systems with AI assistants. In fact, the company's development of a cooperation model with mobile carriers is not new, as Alibaba is working with a number of companies like Oppo and Honor.

Earlier this year, Oppo introduced a quick notes feature that uses AI models to summarize photos and videos , remember food order codes, and track expenses. However, by the end of October, many people discovered that the tool was restricted on WeChat.

Source: https://znews.vn/smartphone-ai-cua-bytedance-gay-lo-ngai-post1609496.html