In this era of 5G development and AI waves, 5G-A applications are constantly expanding, "AI+" products are emerging in an endless stream, and the integration and innovation of 5G and AI have pressed the "shortcut key" for digital life. As the "vane of mobile communications", 5G-A and AI have become the two "hot words" at this MWC, and the commercial use of 5G-A is imminent, and new products and solutions are frequently released. The role of AI empowerment has become prominent, smartphones have evolved into AI mobile phones, computers have become AI PCs, the AI-RAN Alliance has been established, and AI terminals are dazzling, giving the "AI+" industry a new look. As the world's leading wireless technology innovator, Qualcomm has also launched a combination of new products in the fields of "wireless connectivity" and "AI", leading the ecological innovation of smart terminals.
This year's MWC is a grand scale, and Chinese manufacturers are enthusiastic and concerned about it. An important reason is that in recent years, technology has developed rapidly, 5G has advanced in the midfield, and AI innovation can be seen everywhere, so there is a need for such exchanges between industries. ”Meng Feng, Chairman of Qualcomm ChinaIn an interview with Communication World, he said, "5G+AI empowers thousands of industries, which is my biggest feeling for this MWC, and it is also what Qualcomm has been insisting on." Qualcomm's business focuses on various types of terminals, and has been committed to deepening and refining the various technologies that enable 'terminals' for the past 30 years. ”
From "0" to "1".
Generative AI on the device side accelerates the revolution
The industry generally believes that 2023 will be a year of "soaring" AI models, and 2024 will be a year of commercial development of generative AI. At this MWC, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE and other companies have released various AI-based deployment solutions. Manufacturers such as Lenovo, Xiaomi, and Honor have also embraced AI, and AI has become the biggest selling point of their new products.
The second-generation Snapdragon 8 mobile platform took the lead in supporting generative AI models such as Stable Diffusion, Llama2, and Baichuan, and put forward the concept of device-side AI. The third-generation Snapdragon 8 mobile platform and the all-new Snapdragon X Elite platform further upgrade AI capabilities and accelerate the cornerstone of large-scale expansion of AI applications on the device side. Now, with Qualcomm's newly released AI Hub, Qualcomm will empower developers to unleash the full potential of these cutting-edge technologies and create compelling AI-enabled applications.
Meng said that the generative AI capability on the device side is in the stage of "0" to "1", but it is developing rapidly. At last year's MWC, Qualcomm demonstrated Stable Diffusion in the Snapdragon flagship, which takes 15 seconds to generate an image from text. In November 2023, the Xiaomi Mi 14 powered by the third-generation Snapdragon 8 mobile platform will demonstrate that this process only takes 06 seconds. In less than a year, the processing of AI in hardware and the optimization of software have been greatly improved.
At the scene, Qualcomm demonstrated the excellent experience brought by AI on the device side. In terms of smartphones, Qualcomm showcased a series of commercial flagship AI smartphones powered by the third-generation Snapdragon 8 mobile platform. On the PC side, based on the Stable Diffusion plug-in, generative AI can generate images in less than 7 seconds, which is 3x faster than the x86 competitor. On the automotive side, Qualcomm demonstrated both traditional and generative AI capabilities supported by the Snapdragon Digital Chassis Platform. In terms of consumer-grade IoT, Qualcomm showcased the Humane AI PIN running on the Snapdragon platform, which enables users to use AI anytime, anywhere in a new, conversational and screenless device form. Meng said that 2024 will see more generative AI applications on smartphones and connected cars.
Of course, Qualcomm's AI exploration will continue, and a number of cutting-edge AI technologies will be displayed at the same time, releasing the focus of the next stage of upgrading in advance. For example, the world's first multimodal language model (LMM) running on an Android smartphone was showcased, which has more than 7 billion parameters, can accept multiple types of data inputs including text, speech, and images, and is capable of generating multiple rounds of conversations about images with AI assistants. Another example is the world's first audio inference multimodal model running on a Windows PC, which can accept text and audio input and generate multi-turn conversations around the audio content.
On-device AI has arrived, and it is changing at an unprecedented rate.
“5g-a+wi-fi 7”
Make smart connectivity everywhere
MWC2024 focuses on six major areas, the second of which is "5G and next-generation mobile communications" and "AI humanization", and Meng Feng's biggest feeling for this MWC is that "5G + AI" empowers thousands of industries. At the same time, generative AI continues to empower thousands of industries, Wi-Fi accelerates the evolution of the Internet of Everything, and the sparks of the collision of the three powerful factions cover almost all corners of the network connection.
AI makes connectivity smarter, and the improvement of wireless connectivity capabilities will accelerate the commercialization of AI.
As an important driving force in the R&D, commercialization and large-scale realization of wireless technology, Qualcomm's related layouts are very high. At this year's MWC, Qualcomm unveiled two wireless solutions – the Snapdragon X80 modem and the Qualcomm FastConnect 7900 system. Meng said that the Snapdragon X80 supports the 5G-A related features that will be launched later, supporting advanced technology features such as the first downlink six-carrier aggregation, and the commercial terminal equipped with the Snapdragon X80 is expected to be released in the second half of 2024. The FastConnect 7900 system is the world's first AI-enhanced Wi-Fi system, the first solution to integrate Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and ultra-wideband capabilities in a single chip.
It is worth noting that both solutions make extensive use of AI technology for optimization. The Snapdragon X80 integrates the third-generation 5G AI suite to help improve cellular performance, extend range, reduce latency, and improve energy efficiency. The FastConnect 7900 system leverages AI to set a new benchmark for adaptive, high-performance, low-latency, and low-power local wireless connectivity. With the blessing of AI, 5G-A and Wi-Fi will play a greater role.
In addition, we observed that at this MWC, Chinese manufacturers such as China Unicom, Xiaomi, Honor, OnePlus, TCL, Guangyi Zhilian, Fibocom, MeiG Intelligence, Quectel Communications, and SIMCom have joined hands with Qualcomm to release or display a variety of new products based on their products, ranging from Wi-Fi 7 routers, smartphones, tablets, smart watches, and headphones, to various consumer and industrial IoT terminals, 5G smart modules, and FWA solutions.
As Meng said, "Qualcomm is committed to making intelligent computing ubiquitous, supporting the ecosystem to develop and implement generative AI use cases, experiences, and leading products across multiple categories of devices. Make intelligent computing and ultra-fast connectivity accessible to more industries and users. ”