Oppo and OnePlus phones will use Gemini Ultra

The implementation of on-device AI on smartphones surged a lot over the past couple of months. This is thanks to Google’s Gemini Nano model. Well, two more companies are implementing Google’s AI to help give their phones some AI goodness. However, there’s a catch. Oppo and OnePlus will use the Google Gemini Ultra model.

In case you don’t know, both Oppo and OnePlus are prominent Chinese smartphone manufacturers, and they are both owned by the same company, BBK. Back in 2021, the two companies finally merged after being so tightly integrated for years. As such, both companies basically go hand in hand.

So, it should come as no surprise that both are implementing Google’s AI at the same time.

Oppo and OnePlus phones will use Gemini Ultra

If you’re looking for on-device AI, the way to go is an AI model that’s optimized to fit on a smartphone’s chip. However, phones like the Pixel 8 Pro and the Galaxy s24 series use a combination of on-device and online-based AI. This means that they use a combination of Gemini Nano and Gemini Pro.

During Google’s latest Cloud Next event, the company announced that Oppo and OnePlus will be using the company’s more powerful Gemini Ultra model. Any person who knows about these three models will be able to see both the positive and negative sides of listening.

During the event, Google announced that Oppo and OnePlus phones will have features like an AI audio summary feature, an AI toolbox feature, and more. The company even mentioned a tool to generate social media posts. Oppo and OnePlus recently announced an AI object remover for photos, but that feature is running off of its own specific AI model. The audio summary and AI Toolbox will run on Gemini Ultra.

So, what is the downside to this?

Well, the beauty of Galaxy AI and Pixel phones is that they’re capable of on-device AI. This means that everything is being processed natively on the device without the need for an internet connection. However, Gemini Ultra is much too large to fit on a phone’s chip. Thus, Oppo and OnePlus’ AI tools will require an internet connection to work.

That’s a bit of a bummer, as on-device AI is all the rage. We are all used to cloud-based AI, so this implementation doesn’t seem all that special. In any case, we know that these tools will be powered by extremely powerful AI smarts.