China’s Zhipu AI says its app can operate your smartphone for you

AutoGLM can order coffee, send messages and complete other tasks on smartphones based on voice prompts, according to the Chinese start-up

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People look at their smartphones outside a restaurant in Shanghai. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:00am, 30 Oct 2024

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Zhipu AI is experimenting with a tool designed to complete tasks on behalf of smartphone users based on their voice commands, demonstrating a future where our digital lives are automated.

AutoGLM, an AI agent app, is able to understand relatively complex voice commands, such as “repeat my recent cereal order from shopping history”, or “order a latte from the nearest cafe”, according to the Beijing-based firm.

The tool can then plan out the steps involved in each task, “read” information that appears on screens, and perform the required actions on smartphones, said Zhipu AI, which runs a series of AI models and related chatbots, such as ChatGLM.

AutoGLM is the latest example showing how Chinese start-ups are developing products to bring AI capabilities to consumers via smartphones, in a market where top foreign competitors are largely absent.

Zhipu AI is one of China’s top start-ups working on generative AI. Photo: Handout

While Apple this week rolled out its on-device AI system, Apple Intelligence, in US English across most regions, the service is unavailable in mainland China, where the company is still working with local authorities to clear regulatory hurdles for its launch.

China is also excluded from the list of countries and regions where ChatGPT maker OpenAI and rival Anthropic offer access to their generative AI products. Last week, Anthropic debuted a feature similar to Zhipu AI’s AutoGLM called “computer use”, which automates certain computer operations, such as sorting out a spreadsheet or looking for specific information through thousands of rows of data.