SoftBank and Nvidia have announced a new industrial venture, which will combine artificial intelligence with mobile phone technology. NHK news.
Its purpose is to use mobile phone transmission towers to process the massive amounts of data needed for AI.
This announcement was made by this large Japanese telecom company and US chip maker at an event related to mobile technology in Barcelona, Spain.
The collaborative group will be called the “AI-RAN Alliance,” they said.
RAN stands for “Radio Access Network”, which is an important part of mobile phone communication.
The two organizations said 11 companies and organizations from around the world will participate in a joint initiative to establish a global standard. These include Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Samsung Electronics, Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia.
The group plans to commercialize a technology that will use mobile phone base stations. Its purpose is to decentralize the processing of large amounts of data and not rely on large data centers.
The group says the initiative will enable advanced AI services on smartphones and increase the processing power of AI-powered robots.