I'd love to know what an "AI phone" actually means, given that AI is the hottest buzzword to slap on everything since "blockchain".
Does it mean it just connects to chat gpt? Does it run a chatbot locally? Does it do image generation and deep fakes? Does it monitor all my activity to recommend stuff google now style? Does it create a realistic personality I'll fall in love with like in the movie "her"? What does it mean‽
So what? Every laptop has a gpu do you call them gpu laptops? Modern CPUs/SOCs accelerate a lot of things, this is just one more.
Nvidia called the ray tracing gpus RTX. Now all of them has that chip, all of them are called RTX. Same will happen here, in 5 years every cpu will be "AI" and no one will call it that way
True, they have some interesting features. But at least if they use Windows ML, these apps can run on any hardware. The only difference is the performance that can be achieved.
They said something in the video you linked that the developers could use a larger model thanks to the performance of the Snapdragon Chip. And with Davinci, they said that the performance with NPU is better than with GPU.
What I'm trying to say is that these things are not a new invention of 2024. NPUs were introduced at least 7 years ago (for ARM CPUs). The Microsoft APIs have been there for three years. The only new thing is the marketing hype around AI.
I for one would like a local AI assistant of some sort, but I'd also want to be in full control of which of my files, correspondences, locations, contacts, purchases and sex-toys the assistant is aware of on an item to item basis.
Of course that's not going to happen because fuck my privacy.
Instead we're going to be forcefed something extremely privacy-invasive, which will really just be a new vehicle for selling stuff to us that we don't need and eventually it will leak all of the data.
Came here to say this. If I had an AI buddy that could do all sorts of stuff for me and talk about history all day with me on long drives while making sure I was perfectly safe and secure and basically be my best artificial friend...
Nope. It's getting to the point I don't even want a smartphone anymore. In fact, I just bought a "dumb" phone and am going to try using that as my daily driver for a month and see how it goes. Should be delivered this afternoon, and I'll be starting the experiment tomorrow, hopefully.
I would if I'd be able to run my own models, it'd be better than having to connect to my server.
But AFAIK these features won't be available to all developers, so I'm guessing only Google apps will be able to properly use the potential of the phone.
The P9 is supposed to have an on-device image gen model that was touted as being able to be used even without an internet connection
Stock-wise you're stuck with whatever model Google ships it with, but I'm curious to see what happens when they get out in the wild and rooted. With some luck, the model is stored within Android somewhere (as in not on a special chip or something, which I don't think it is because I saw a video of its demonstration and they had to download and install the model for the initial setup) and might be able to be swapped out/tinkered with with root. Though that's probably going to take months or longer depending on how it's configured/protected
Except for the people who know what they are doing. As it turns out a lot of actual business people looked at the insane amount of money going into AI and realized it would take a huge return plus potentially decades to break even.
You don't need to understand "AI" to see that pouring billions into something that doesn't have a business model could be a bad bet.
Want it or not, you're gonna get it. The industry is going balls deep with it and I doubt AI phones are even the tip of the iceberg. They're gonna use the shit in everything.
The hardware industry wants to sell new devices. Most software companies just upload your data to the cloud and to the AI magic there (e.g. ChatGPT, Bing Image creator).
I want a phone that doesn't blast telemetry everywhere eating my battery. I want a phone that lasts a week between charges. I also want (most) apps to go away and stick to the web so my browser can keep me safe from them.
My favorite e-commerce experience has been at breweries and comedy clubs. Scan QR code, order on web page. Receive SMS to get back to page. Pay on page when done, close tab. Our exchange of information has completed. Maybe they send an email later, maybe not.
Versus apps tracking the status of your colon 24/7.
Not now. Maybe it'll be useful once the bubble bursts and a few actually decent uses for something that could actually run on a phone emerge from the rubble and actually work.
At the moment I'm not seeing a whole lot overall that actually works unless you're an expert using it for science or something like that.
It depends on who you're asking. The AI branding appeals to a lot of the more casual users I know, but it ultimately comes down to the actual functionality being added. It's the first time in a long time that I've been interested in following smartphone developments. What our devices can actually do has been rather stagnant IMO.
Was curious so searched it, looks like the two big AI features are AI image editing and Google Gemini, both of which are apps look available on other devices. They can always be disabled, but Pixels are great for GeapheneOS anyways.
An AI asics chip for more efficient local software might have been cool but doesn't looks like it comes with one.
I use AI all the time. The ability to select text and images from a screenshot or the app switcher is pretty useful for when apps refuse to implement selection themselves. My keyboard also allows me to type much faster than when I try to be as precise as I need to be with unassisted keyboards. Plus, photos captured without image enhancement look terrible (and nothing like what you're seeing in real life). Firefox translate has also finally hit Android and it's been pretty good so far. Google Translate has worked offline for a while as well but it's not as good as normal Google translate I believe.
I don't use text generation much (although I do use it accidentally now that it's replaced Assistant) and the photo editing tools are mostly gimmicks to me, though I can see their actual use.
If Google can give me all of this existing stuff while using less battery life because of the NPU, it'd be pretty happy.
I do use text generation whenever I'm doing a simple small bit of coding on hobby projects and want to write a function without navigating pages of stackoverflow for the right syntax. Although even then, I rarely actually am able to use the function without some form of slight adjustments
That's true, but I don't see that as a problem to be honest. You can't trust AI to always do the right thing, but it can be useful if the mistakes it does make are easy to spot and correct.
I do want the AI stuff to run locally, though, I don't trust the AI companies nor the law enforcement agencies that are probably intercepting every bit of data that gets sent to the cloud.
Why can't they use AI for something useful like better commands when using hands free while driving. They have all these gimmicks yet it cannot play a specific music playlist on spotify on shuffle without a very specific word for word command
I could see a free public AI tool for medical or legal use being potentially extremely valuable. But it'll never happen for the same reason self-driving cars will never happen: humans are allowed to be fallible but computers are not.
I could see an actually-functional AI assistant being potentially extremely valuable.
I am sure there are other potential use-cases but as of yet none of these things have materialized.
Their greatest value will be to pump-and-dump investors. And AI hardware producers. This craze has launched Nvidia into the stratosphere.
I don't want an AI phone specifically, but its inclusion is not a deal breaker. I'm in it for the Foldy phones, even though they're changing the screen sizes compared to the 0G fold, it's still leagues better than Samshits Foldy offering and those are my only options here in the states
The demos of the Gemini AI seem somewhat useful, but only if it actually works right most of the time
From my (small) friends circle, I haven't heard any of them talk about getting one. However, it's worth noting that these friends of mine are also not the ones who would buy new smartphones every year. They typically hold onto their phones for a few years and only switch when it seems like the phone isn't performing as expected (e.g. battery draining too quickly; slowness in software actions; to name a few).
One question I do have is, what happens if you clean install an AOSP like GrapheneOS onto these newer Pixels phones? Does that remove the AI features completely?
Part of the problem is the Pixel phone, I mean that's been a problem ever since it came out. Sometimes it's alright but there's a lot of people that have bought a Pixel & regretted it. My brother in law being one of many. I can say with relative confidence, Google Pixel phones have had so many problems & lack of support, I'm sure everybody reading this knows somebody with Google Pixel buyer's remorse. Or maybe they are that person.
This is a well-earned reputation. So yeah I can believe people aren't jumping at the P9.
The AI part is just another reason to not buy a Google Pixel phone.
I like my Pixel 8 just fine, but I turned Gemini off the minute Google tried to foist it on me. I am also considering just installing Graphene OS instead, which Pixels are pretty good for.
No, i use a custom rom for most of my phones, so the ai bs is worthless to me. I'd rather just but a 6 or 7 for a cheaper price than an 8 or 9 for a higher price without any significant hardware upgrades.
I might have before, but I'm across the country from Silicon Valley now and they are probably cooking in three-figure heat while their ZYBERTRUKKKS are falling apart from just existing. They still love the truck though! 🍷🍷