This morning, at the first representative channel of the Third Session of the 14th National People's Congress, Lei Jun, a national people's congress representative, founder, chairman, and CEO of Xiaomi, and chairman of Kingsoft, answered reporters' questions. Lei Jun elaborated on Xiaomi's role in manufacturing, technological innovation direction, and globalization strategy.

Lei Jun pointed out that AI terminals, as important platforms for the implementation of AI technology, are constantly expanding their application scope, extending from smartphones, smart cars, and wearable devices to smart homes and robots. This trend not only injects new vitality into the consumer market but also provides key impetus for the high-end and intelligent upgrading of the industrial chain. However, in the early stages of the rapid development of AI terminals, it is still necessary to overcome core technological bottlenecks, build a collaborative innovation ecosystem, and promote industry standardization, collaboration, innovation, and high-quality development.

Xiaomi Group CEO Lei Jun announced at the launch event for the Xiaomi 15 Ultra and Xiaomi SU7 Ultra that Xiaomi's R&D investment is expected to exceed 24 billion yuan in 2024 and reach 30 billion yuan in 2025. Approximately a quarter of the 2025 R&D budget will be allocated to AI and related businesses. Lei Jun also stated that the projected R&D investment will reach 105 billion yuan over the next five years.

Xiaomi founder, chairman, and CEO Lei Jun announced on Weibo that Xiaomi's first AI-powered professional laptop, the Redmi Book Pro 16 2025, will be launched on February 27th at 7 PM CST, with immediate sales. According to the official poster, the Redmi Book Pro 16 2025 will be among the first to feature Intel's 2nd generation Core "Ultra" processors, boasting leading computing power up to 96 TOPS and a 150%+ increase in platform AI computing power, along with high-speed LPDDR5X-8400MT memory.

According to foreign media reports, Apple may be planning to integrate Google's Gemini AI model into its Apple Intelligence system. This news comes from firmware analyst Aaron Perris's research of the code in the first beta of iOS 18.4, where he discovered new references in the backend code that include "Google" as a third-party model option. This finding aligns with Apple's previous strategic layout. According to 9to5Mac, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi,

Apple Inc. announced through its official website early today that its smart features are set to undergo a significant update, with a notably expanded range of supported languages. The newly added languages include French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese, along with localized English versions for Singapore and India.

According to Daring Fireball, iPhone 15 Pro users are about to receive good news: Apple's Visual Intelligence feature will be available on the Pro series flagship models released in 2023. This means that there is one less reason for iPhone 15 Pro users to upgrade to the iPhone 16 series. Visual Intelligence is similar to Google's Google Lens and is part of Apple Intel.

Recently, AI programming startup Codeium is undergoing a new funding round, with a valuation close to $2.85 billion. According to sources, this funding round is led by investment firm Kleiner Perkins, marking another occasion where Codeium has garnered investor attention after six months. Notably, in the past six months, Codeium completed a $150 million Series C funding round, with a post-funding valuation of $1.25 billion. Although the specific amount for the new funding round has not been disclosed yet.

Today, Apple officially announced the new iPhone 16e, confirming its memory configuration. Reportedly, the iPhone 16e is equipped with 8GB of RAM, a specification that aligns with market expectations and meets the minimum requirements for Apple Intelligence features. This upgrade not only enhances the performance of the iPhone 16e but also provides users with a smoother experience.

Recently, domestic media learned from Luo Fuli's relatives that this post-95 AI genius girl has officially embarked on a new professional journey and started working in her new position. However, there is currently no specific information disclosed about the name of the company she is joining. Looking back at the end of 2024, the tech community was stirred when Xiaomi Group founder Lei Jun invited Luo Fuli to join his team with a generous multi-million salary, aimed at advancing breakthroughs in the field of AI large model research. This move quickly sparked heated discussions online.

Recently, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun conducted a unique live streaming event during the Lantern Festival, held in the Xiaomi company cafeteria. He interacted with netizens in a 'mukbang' format, sharing information about the upcoming launch events for the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra and Xiaomi 15 Ultra at the end of the month, while also answering many questions from concerned netizens.

Apple plans to automatically enable its artificial intelligence (AI) feature, Apple Intelligence, for eligible users in the upcoming updates for iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS 15.3. According to release notes discovered by 9to5Mac, both new users and those upgrading to the latest operating system will automatically experience the powerful capabilities of Apple Intelligence. Image source note: Image generated by AI.