The Elusive Dream of AI Smartphones: A Year in Review
As I reflect on the past year, it’s striking to note that every major phone launch in the US loudly declared one thing: AI is here, and ours is the AI phone you’ve been waiting for. The applause was deafening, and the stock prices moved accordingly. However, when I got my hands on these phones, the AI experience was underwhelming, to say the least.
The Theory of AI Smartphones
The idea behind AI smartphones is revolutionary – a new kind of device that doesn’t force you to interact with a grid of apps all day long. Instead, you’ll be able to ask your AI-imbued voice assistant to order pizza or send an email just by using your voice. You’ll point your camera at a flyer for a show, and the AI will check if you’re free and add it to your calendar. You’ll ask about something a friend said to you – maybe in an email or a text, and you’re not sure which – and it will go find the information for you.
Google’s Gemini Assistant: A Steady Improvement
Google’s Gemini assistant has been steadily improving since its launch but still falls short of a true AI assistant. I personally think that all of the above sounds great – I’d love some help with the chores I carry out a hundred times a day on my phone, and with the firehose of incoming information and notifications I deal with.
The Reality: A Collection of Loosely Associated Tech Demos
However, AI smartphones are not here yet, despite what you may have heard. Instead, we have a collection of loosely associated tech demos. Right now, AI on your phone can help you write and rewrite an email to sound more professional or react to a text with a disco pigeon emoji. There’s AI that translates phone calls, which kind of works and is actually pretty neat. And there’s AI that can turn a nice picture of food into something horrifying.
The (Supposedly) AI Smartphones of 2024
All of the major phone makers are at fault for this hype. Samsung opened the year with its Galaxy S24 launch in January, declaring ‘Galaxy AI is here’ at an arena-appropriate volume. To be sure, the devices it announced are good smartphones, and they run a blend of Samsung and Google’s Gemini Nano models on-device, but I wouldn’t call them AI smartphones.
Supposedly Helpful Features
The features supposedly available on these phones are helpful, to say the least. For instance, you can help take distractions out of your photos – but you might end up with something even more distracting instead. The live language interpreter feature for phone calls could come in handy for making a dinner reservation. However, it also translated a statement from my colleague as ‘I am eating my chair’ (She was not). Most users will find that these AI features fade into the background once the novelty wears off.
AI Gets It Right… Sometimes
Sometimes AI gets it right – it correctly identifies an artificial plant here. But more often than not, the results are laughable or even disturbing. The lack of coherence and consistency in these AI-powered features is striking.
Google’s Pixel 6 Pro: A Mixed Bag
The Google Pixel 6 Pro is a mixed bag when it comes to AI. On one hand, it has some genuinely useful features like live captions and the ability to translate conversations in real-time. However, on the other hand, the phone’s AI assistant still struggles to understand simple voice commands.
The Messy Moment for AI
It’s not just phones; this is a messy moment for AI in general. Depending on who you ask, AI is either a massive bubble that’s about to burst or a few months away from evolving into digital God. AI is being foisted on us in every direction – surfacing in Google search results, lurking in every Meta product, greeting you by name in the Spotify app.
The Signal vs. The Noise
It’s hard to separate the signal from the noise when it comes to AI because the noise is everywhere and it’s so goddamn loud! However, there really might be a signal in there – especially when it comes to our phones. Siri really might become more useful with an Apple Intelligence update this spring that will allow it to take action in apps through something known as App Intents.
A New Era for AI on Mobile Devices
Developers will be able to surface certain actions – like ordering the pizza that AI proponents keep promising – so they’re accessible at the system level by Siri. Google seems to be preparing a similar framework in Android 16, which could help bridge the gap between Gemini and individual apps without the apps needing an entire extension.
The Real AI Smartphones Need to Stand Up
However, after a full year of supposedly game-changing AI on our mobile devices that amounted to nothing, it’s starting to sound like the phone makers are crying wolf. The real AI smartphones need to stand up pretty soon – before our collective patience starts to run out.
