Qualcomm, Baidu Align to Support On-Device AI Voice Solution

At the second annual Snapdragon Technology Summit, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Baidu, announced that the companies will work together to optimize Baidu’s DuerOS conversational artificial intelligence (AI) system for smartphones on the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Mobile Platform, including the upcoming Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform.

This strategic collaboration will utilize both parties’ experience and expertise in AI to optimize DuerOS with the Qualcomm Aqstic™ hardware and software, to support a complete AI voice and smart assistant solution for global smartphone and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Voice-first smart assistants are driving a paradigm change in human-machine interaction. Snapdragon mobile platforms are designed to accelerate the development of AI use cases, such as natural language processing for smartphones and IoT devices.

This includes supporting Baidu to optimize DuerOS technologies on Qualcomm Aqstic hardware and software that includes:

◦Always-on, low power, voice activation running on the Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec (WCD934x, WCD9335) supporting DuerOS – activation is achieved simply by saying the phrase “Xiaodu Xiaodu.”
◦Echo cancellation and noise suppression so that users can talk to their DuerOS device powered by Snapdragon at any time.

This collaboration aims to support the availability of optimized DuerOS reference application for upcoming software releases on Snapdragon mobile platforms giving OEMs the ability to deliver AI voice solutions on their devices with improved user experience and faster time-to-market.

“Qualcomm Technologies continues to drive research into AI, and we are committed to the development of on-device AI, including audio. Qualcomm Technologies is pleased to collaborate with Baidu on AI for voice enabled solutions,” said Keith Kressin, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies. “The collaboration with Baidu will bring AI for voice enabled solutions to next-generation Snapdragon mobile platforms, allowing users to wakeup smartphones and IoT devices using their voice in their natural language at any time and at extremely low power, while utilizing Baidu’s DuerOS voice services.”

“Through the collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, we will bring a new AI voice experience to OEMs of smartphones and IoT devices around the world. Leveraging Baidu’s strengths in AI, big data, knowledge graph, information and services ecosystems, DuerOS will support OEMs with its strong capabilities, while providing users with more comprehensive and quality information and services to satisfy their needs,” said Kun Jing, general manager, Duer business unit, Baidu.

DuerOS is Baidu’s conversational AI system with skills in 10 major domains and over 200 sub-domains. Since its launch in the beginning of 2017, it has quickly gathered over 130 partners, becoming the top choice for third party hardware manufacturers in China that have integrated DuerOS in over 100 branded devices ranging from refrigerators and air conditioners to mobile phones, TV set-top boxes, storytelling machines and smart speakers. The system has been applied at home, in the car, on mobile devices and in various scenarios.