Honor has been making huge strides in introducing new ecosystem-level features over the last few months. The latest one was during the very recent VivaTech 2024, one of Europe's largest tech and innovation events. During the keynote, the company unveiled its trump card on the current AI craze: a Four-Layer AI Strategy. These features are slated to first roll out on its upcoming Honor 200 Series smartphones.
Honor AI Architecture Summary
The Four-Layer AI Architecture, the key highlight of Honor's presentation, demonstrates the company's strategic focus on integrating AI into its MagicOS operating system. This architecture comprises four distinct layers, one on top of the other starting at the bottom:
- Cross-device and Cross-OS AI – Making devices work together seamlessly. This base layer forms the foundation of an open ecosystem, allowing the sharing of computing power and services among devices and operating systems.
- Platform-level AI – Adapting to user needs and preferences dynamically. Building upon the base layer, this enables a personalized operating system with intent-based human-computer interaction and personalized resource allocation.
- App-level AI – Adding more automated processing capabilities. The third layer is poised to introduce innovative, generative AI applications that will revolutionize user experiences.
- Interface to Cloud-AI services – AI access plus additional data via the cloud. At the top, this layer provides users with easy access to massive cloud services while prioritizing privacy protection.
What Can We Really Expect?
Even with simplified explanations, Honor’s AI architecture presentation doesn't seem to really represent direct features or applications. More of a system explanation than anything. But there are at least some tangible things that we can immediately draw from this announcement.
For instance, as part of MagicOS 8.0, the company will introduce Magic Portal, the industry's first intent-based UI that understands user behavior and streamlines complex tasks into single-step processes. It is touted to support 100 applications across seven usage scenarios, which are set to expand even more as it updates in the near future.
Then, as mentioned, the Honor 200 Series smartphones will be the first to feature the Four-Layer AI Architecture, plus cutting-edge Gen-AI experiences powered by Google Cloud. We can expect these features to more or less emulate what we already have on other platforms, perhaps a bit more depending on how Honor intends to market their AI system further.
The presentation also announced a collaboration with the legendary French photography studio, Studio Harcourt. By leveraging AI technology to learn from Studio Harcourt's vast dataset of iconic portraits, supported devices could theoretically replicate the studio's top-class lighting and shadow effects… or so we hope.
The Adaptation Race Continues
After its two-step launch in China, the Honor 200 series is set to launch next in Paris on June 12, and will be powered by… you guessed it, MagicOS 8.0. And yes, the same OS (update) plus AI features are also slated for Honor Magic V2 and Honor 90, extending feature parity to relevant devices that should be able to keep up.
While the concept of a Four-Layer AI Architecture and collaboration with Google Cloud is adequately intriguing, it never was surprising at all, given the current landscape of mobile tech. More smart features for more brands are always welcome of course. Plus, it is interesting to see just how good it would be compared to other AI features already rolled out by other competitors.
