The technology powering chatbots is soon set to appear in mobile phones. Starting from the next year, new smartphone models from companies such as Samsung and OnePlus could potentially come equipped with generative native apps, which are powered by Meta's AI technology. In order to actualize this development, Meta has forged separate alliances with Mediatek and Qualcomm which are renowned smartphone chip manufacturers. While they may not be popular household names, it's worth noting that their processors are embedded in the majority of Android phones and basically function as the brain of these devices.

Mediatek made an announcement on Wednesday stating that they intend to unveil a next-generation chip that will utilize Meta's AI technology known as the Llama 2 system. Earlier in July, Qualcomm also disclosed a similar partnership agreement with Meta. This development aims to tackle one of the largest challenges posed by this emerging tech trend. Currently, data-hungry AI tools like ChatGPT are extremely expensive to operate due to their reliance on remote cloud servers. If they could operate natively on mobile devices, it would significantly lower the economic barrier for developers which can then trigger the creation of a variety of new apps and services for users.

In addition, Meta is taking steps to encourage developers to utilize its AI large language model by offering the code for free. However, some experts express concerns that this liberal approach might pave way for rogue elements to use the technology for malicious purposes. For the average user, the ultimate goal of this innovation could be the creation of personalized digital assistants that provide advice and tips that are tailored to an individual's preferences, internet activity, health data, location, and speaking style. These AI entities can then be communicated with through a myriad of means.

The new services which will be running on individual devices promise the benefit of improved data privacy and security compared to the current cloud-based systems. This is the attractive proposition Qualcomm and Mediatek tout. They predict that chatbots operating directly from a device can respond more quickly than their cloud-based counterparts because they won't depend on crowded internet networks or overloaded servers. They added that users would even be capable of interacting with the bots offline, which could prove useful in situations such as writing an email while commuting in the subway or preparing for a business meeting during a flight.

Lastly, another overall benefit is the potential reduction in energy consumption. It's a well-known fact that data centers which keep chatbots operational use a large amount of water for cooling purposes. In fact, recent studies have revealed that training an AI model like ChatGPT demands a lot of energy - the equivalent of emptying a 500ml bottle. Alternatively, mobile phones can supposedly run these AI models by consuming only a fraction of the energy, as per Qualcomm's claim. While they haven't provided specific figures, it's a promising prospect nonetheless. It's important to note that Meta isn't the sole company attempting to bring AI to smartphones - Google also recently announced that it successfully ran a lighter version of its latest large language model, PaLM 2, on mobile devices.