Can you run ChatGPT on a stupid phone? It turns out yes, but with caveats

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of years, you’re probably aware of this Smartphones They all come with built-in AI these days – with the option to offer more, in the form of chatbots and various apps. But not everyone in the world has a smartphone.

In fact, many people around the world depend on it Stupid phonesalso known as feature phones, provide connectivity and basic features without the demanding apps and intensive computing power we associate with smartphones. But even dumb phones are more sophisticated than they used to be. Originally, these were relatively simple devices that offered calling and texting over 2G — and some still do — but now many of them offer something more like a smartphone experience with the benefit of 4G connectivity.

But how smart is a stupid phone? Smart enough to run AI, for example? Iconic phone maker HMD, which has long made dumb Nokia-branded phones, says yes — and it showed me how Mobile World Congress In Barcelona this week.

HMD showed off a demo at the show with AI running on one of its 4G phones. To activate the phone’s AI assistant, all you have to do is press and hold the middle navigation button, and then you can ask it a question, such as: “What will the weather be like in Barcelona tomorrow?” To deal with chatbot.

CnNow, unlike high-end smartphones like Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and Xiaomi 17 Ultra Leica Which contains the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset capable of running On-device artificial intelligencethe feature phone will have to process all AI-based queries on the cloud. This means it won’t be as instantaneous as you’re used to, but a strong 4G connection will result in minimal time lag. In the demo I saw, it only took about 5 seconds to answer my weather query, which I didn’t think was too bad.

When HMD starts introducing AI on feature phones in the coming months, it will use a set of large language models. In Europe, it will rely on OpenAI ChatGPTIn China, it will be used deep sec, In India, the company has a partnership with Sarvam AI. (HMD withdrew from the US market last year.)

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, the parent company of CNET, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that it infringed Ziff Davis’s copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Many people who rely on HMD feature phones live in low-income areas where this phone may be the only device in the family,” said Ming Li, head of global marketing for HMD, during our webinar. MWC experimental. In these regions, the profound negative impacts of the existing digital divide are likely to be exacerbated by the fact that people are isolated from using AI. For some people, a dumb phone capable of running AI may be their first and only access to technology that many of us take for granted.

The other group of people Lee hopes will benefit from AI on feature phones are seniors. In another part of the demo, Lee showed how AI can also be used to interact directly with the HMD phone. “It’s a little dark in here,” he said, holding down the navigation button. He flipped the phone over, and the torch was turned on.

“A lot of times, when you’re going through menus, it’s hard to see what you’re doing,” he said. The sound, on the other hand, is “very natural.”

These are relatively basic uses of AI compared to more complex uses agent Or the photo editing features we’re starting to see popping up. It definitely isn’t Research circle. But that doesn’t mean that this will be impossible in the future – after all, smartphones change and improve just as smartphones do.

“Two years ago, we wouldn’t have thought about putting front cameras on regular phones,” he told me. He added that when it comes to artificial intelligence, things have evolved so quickly that it is now difficult to say what might be possible. However, HMD’s focus is on adding things based on what its customers actually need, not just what might be technically possible.

“What we try to do is provide services that we find will be most helpful,” Lee said. “The possibilities are endless…this is just the beginning.”