WeChat, Some Chinese Banking Apps Block Access to ByteDance's New AI Agent

(Yicai) Dec. 4 -- Tencent Holdings' super app WeChat and the mobile banking apps of Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank are among several applications to have block automated operations by the new artificial intelligence agent developed by TikTok owner ByteDance.Several users on the new Nubia M153 smartphone said online that they were forcibly logged out after the Doubao Mobile Assistant tried to run WeChat and were met with the message "there is an abnormality in the login environment" yesterday. In addition, the banking apps of AgBank and China Construction Bank display pop-up warnings, prompting users to disable the tool before proceeding.The Nubia M153 is the first smartphone developed by Chinese telecom equipment and consumer electronics maker ZTE and comes equipped with the Doubao Mobile Assistant. Launched on Dec. 1 at a price of CNY3,499 (USD495), it is currently only available to developers and industry professionals.In response to the issue, WeChat said that there were no specific actions taken on its part, suggesting that users might have triggered existing security and risk control measures. The standout feature of the Doubao Mobile Assistant is its ability to switch seamlessly between multiple apps, manage bookings, place online orders, download batch files, track logistics across different platforms, and reply to messages, all through simple user voice commands.The Nubia M153 has granted the Doubao Mobile Assistant the high-level INJECT_EVENTS permission, which is typically reserved for system components developed by the phone manufacturer, industry technicians pointed out. Having this means that the tool can read screen content and simulate user clicks, among other capabilities. "The Doubao Mobile Assistant is essentially set up as part of the operating system, rather than as third-party software," according to one technician.There is no hacking activity, with INJECT_EVENTS indeed being a system-level permission, and the Doubao Mobile Assistant requires users to grant authorization before it can use the permission to operate the phone, Doubao's team said on Weibo. The tool will not act on users' behalf for sensitive authorizations, such as payments or identity verification, and will not store screen content in the cloud for training, it added.The essence of the AI competition is a struggle for access to private data among phone makers, model developers, and traditional app developers, said Zhou Jingping, chief security officer of security firm Knownsec. Each party is attempting to implement AI solutions, but internet companies view data as their lifeline and are reluctant to allow third-party apps to gain high-level permissions, Zhou noted.On Dec. 1, the Cloud Computing Standards and Open Source Promotion Committee released guidelines for agent interaction security, stating that AI agents must not bypass verification measures of third-party apps by simulating user behavior. However, establishing a dual authorization mechanism still requires time.Last month, Amazon filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI, accusing its browser-based AI agent of shopping on behalf of Google users in violation of the platform's Terms of Service. The California-based startup called Amazon a "bully" and argued that users have the right to independently use AI tools.Editor: Martin Kadiev