The Boao Forum for the Asia Annual Conference 2025 took place between 25 and 28 March. During the forum, the Chinese smartphone maker Vivo announced that it had launched its robotics lab to create the “brain” and “eyes” for future robots. In fact, it was reported on 24 March that the robotics lab is currently on the hunt for a head scientist to lead the groundbreaking research.
Hu Baishan, executive vice president and COO of Vivo, spoke at the event and added that, alongside the technical innovation, the company is also aiming at the consumer market to create robotic products for personal and family use cases. By focusing on the “brain” and “eyes”, the phone maker will be able to make use of its own innovations in the AI large language model (LLM) and mixed reality (MR) image processing technologies it has already been developing.
Vivo is one of the earliest Chinese tech companies to venture into AI, and it announced 5 LLMs in 2023 as an “LLM matrix” called Blue Heart. It also released a “PhoneGPT” model that can process audio and images. But with the recent AI craze from all tech competitors, Vivo switched its AI strategy from all in development to emphasising practical use and deployed DeepSeek in a “dual model” with Blue Heart. Meanwhile, Vivo also unveiled its MR headset for the first time at the Boao conference.
For Vivo, the key is to break down the barrier between the digital and the physical worlds, which is why interactive interfaces such as MR headsets and AI agents are their next steps. Vivo is leveraging its advantage as a hardware builder, and it’s worth monitoring how it navigates the current AI and robotics boom in the tech space.
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