• Japanese operator SoftBank Corp. is to launch a ‘Natural AI Phone’ on 24 April
• Its ‘intent-driven’ capabilities are enabled by US developer Brain Technologies
• Brain is planning launches in other markets later this year

Japanese operator SoftBank Corp. has unveiled a 5G ‘Natural AI Phone’ device, developed in partnership with US AI developer Brain Technologies, that enables software to be in synch with a user’s intention and which will be launched on 24 April via SoftBank’s 5,000-plus retail outlets priced at 93,600 yen ($589), the companies have announced. 

San Mateo, California-based Brain Technologies has been working for years on AI that   “organises the world’s software around human intent – not apps, not menus, not notifications” but rather “computers that think the way people do… The app grid is gone. In its place: An intelligence that learns your patterns, understands what you're trying to accomplish, and acts on your behalf,” based on what you prompt the device to achieve through voice or other interactions, noted Brain on its website. “Simply say what you need and the right app forms itself around your words,” it states.

The result is the company’s Natural operating system (OS), which Brain describes as “the world’s first AI-native operating system”: The Natural AI Phone will be the first large-scale deployment of that OS, with a global launch to follow later this year. 

According to Brain, the OS has been developed based on three principles:

• It flows. Tasks unfold around intent, not around apps. The user asks; the system does.
   
• It organises. Information groups itself around goals and concepts, not into static folders. The phone adapts to what matters; the user stops adapting to the phone.
   
• It persists. The system works in the background between interactions – watching for what comes next, not waiting to be told. Intelligence that persists is qualitatively different from intelligence that responds.

And there’s more to come. Brain noted: “The Japan version of the device is designed specifically for local services and is not intended to represent the full experience planned for other markets. As Brain expands globally, the platform will continue to evolve with region-specific capabilities.”

Jerry Yue, founder and CEO of Brain Technologies, stated: “We didn’t set out to build a better smartphone. We asked what a phone would look like if you designed it around the way human attention actually works. The answer was something entirely new. Japan gets it first. The world sees it later this year.” (We’ll come back to this in a moment…)

For SoftBank Corp, which has more than 41 million mobile users, the launch will help it to differentiate itself in a highly competitive mobile services market as it has the exclusive right to offer a Natural AI Phone in Japan for one year before any of its rivals – NTT Docomo, KDDI and Rakuten Mobile – can offer the device. 

SoftBank noted in this announcement (in Japanese) that a Natural AI interaction is initiated by pressing the “AI button” located on the right side of the device, and that pressing the AI button twice while using an app or screen will prompt Natural AI to “understand and remember the content of images and text on the screen, and use this information for subsequent suggestions”.

SoftBank added that the device builds up its knowledge of how the user behaves and the kinds of actions that person prefers not only based on information input by the user but also by storing and analysing natural language and other interactions with the Natural OS, which then predicts user intent and provides personalised support and suggestions. 

The system can also complete tasks using multiple apps, such as locating, contacting and interacting with a restaurant to make a reservation: SoftBank notes that, at launch, the apps that can be controlled by Natural AI are Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, YouTube, LINE, Tabelog, Amazon, Rakuten Market, and Yahoo! Shopping,” with more apps set to be enabled in the future. 

It seems likely the capabilities of such a device will develop quickly and it’ll be very interesting to see which companies partner with Brain for launches in other markets as the company goes global. 

It’s also interesting that Brain’s initial launch is with SoftBank in Japan and not Deutsche Telekom in Germany, which teamed up with Brain Technologies to unveil an AI smartphone concept in February 2024 at the MWC trade show in Barcelona. Since then, though, DT’s AI device launches have been made in partnership with conversational search engine developer Perplexity, with the telco launching its AI-enabled smartphones and tablets in multiple European markets in August last year. 

In addition, at MWC26 last month, DT unveiled its Magenta AI Call Assistant, a network-based application that, starting in Germany this year, will initially answer questions, translate in real time and offer call summaries and, at an unspecified later date, enable users to turn conversations “into actions” from any device.   

It’ll be interesting to see if DT and Brain still have plans for joint product launches in the future. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV