Microsoft and Xiaomi collaborate to create devices based on artificial intelligence

February 24, 2018

Xiaomi and Microsoft have signed a "memorandum of understanding" to work together on cloud services, artificial intelligence and hardware. So far it was unusual for an American company to work with a Chinese company on artificial intelligence, but on the other hand it makes tremendous sense considering that the U.S. and China are the largest markets for products and services.

Microsoft plans to allow Xiaomi to use cloud services, including Azure software, to develop upgraded phones, laptops and smart devices with the aim of getting all these products to market. At the same time, such a partnership would give Microsoft greater and better access to the Chinese market.

The two companies are in talks about possibly integrating Cortana into the Mi AI speaker, an affordable device with a fairly modern look. So far, Microsoft has only designed one Cortana smart speaker, the Harmon Kardon Invoke, which has competed with similar smart speakers from other companies, such as those from Google and Amazon.

Microsoft and Xiaomi are also in talks about projects that will use a different artificial intelligence technology from Mictosoft, including speech and chat capabilities and services such as Bing, Edge and Skype.

Since the companies have chosen to sign a memorandum, their cooperation is not legally binding and it is not clear whether financial capital is involved.

Microsoft and Xiaomi have had ties since 2015, when they signed an agreement to test Windows 10 on Xiaomi devices. Last year, Xiaomi was the fifth best-selling smartphone maker after it managed to sell 92.4 million devices, trailing closely behind Samsung, Apple and Huawei, according to IDC's figures.

Xiaomi said in a published statement that it expects to benefit from Microsoft's technologies that are driving developments in cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

More and more partnerships between major manufacturers are constantly appearing. Tencent and Samsung announced yesterday that they will jointly invest in artificial intelligence and games. This is a partnership that surfaced after discussions started at CES last month.

Artificial intelligence in our lives

Indeed, artificial intelligence will be an integral part of human life in a few years' time. More and more sectors are investing in it to develop their products and make them as good as possible for humans. As we saw a few days ago, a Google algorithm can detect whether someone is going to have a heart attack just by scanning their eyes.

Of course, all efforts, whether we are talking about smartphones, medicine, or any other field that looks at artificial intelligence, are in the experimental stage with their appearance set for a few years from now!