ByteDance’s agentic AI smartphone dials up a digital backlash by China’s top apps

ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, has moved to tighten controls on its artificial intelligence-powered smartphone after several of China’s most widely used apps restricted its voice-operated functions.

In a statement issued on Friday, ByteDance said it would prevent the Nubia M153 AI phone from claiming incentives that were intended for active human users.

It was also disabling the assistant’s interaction with financial apps, including banking and payment services, and suspending AI features in competitive games to preserve fair play.

The measures followed moves by a number of leading platforms to limit Doubao’s operations, including Alipay, the payment app owned by Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which also owns the South China Morning Post.

The handset, launched as a trial product, has attracted strong interest from early adopters by offering a way to control the device without touching the screen. Users can, for example, dictate verbal commands for the phone to publish social media posts automatically.

Chen Tang, a 21-year-old freelancer and Nubia M153 user, said that Pinduoduo, Alibaba’s Taobao and Alipay, and Ele.me could not be operated via Doubao, which was embedded in the phone’s operating system.