China Telecom outlines plans for AI phones

China Telecommunications Corp unveiled a white paper on Thursday to detail its demands for artificial-intelligence-enabled smartphones, as the nation's third-largest telecom carrier by subscribers aims to establish a beachhead in the AI era.

Lu Liangjun, deputy general manager of the marketing department of China Telecom, said the Beijing-based company aims to sell 50 million AI handsets in 2018, and it will subsidize smartphone vendors that make such tailor-made handsets.

The move is part of China Telecom's broader push to expand its users by encouraging companies to make and sell low-price handsets that are bundled with its telecom services.