It hasn't been a great year for smartphone AI. While AI technology has advanced by leaps and bounds behind the scenes, the actual AI products we've been able to use seem less useful than ever. Even if AI calculations do that best camera phones fantastic, we feel like we are exposed to more bad AI than good AI. I'm here to provide a ray of sunshine through the cloud! AI will be very good for mobile devices. It will make everything so much easier that you will never think about having AI on your phone again.
Until then, AI must overcome its bad reputation. As I will explain, AI will be everything, but we are not there yet. I don't think today's situation is due to an AI error. I blame humans, not AI. I'm confident about AI – I expect it to be an integral part of mobile computing in a few years. You won't think of buying a phone without it.
Today's AI is not even version 1.0 yet. The features we have today – generative AI to create images and text and live chat agents – not The AI, but rather the tools that will build AI. These are not finished products. These are not even products, but rather tricks that the resulting AI systems can perform on the way to functionality.
Today’s AI makes me ask, “Why do we need this?”
I can't email or text without my AI assistant offering to help me screw it up
I may be cynical, but look at the AI features we are being force-fed. We get a picture Generators full of stereotypesCopyright infringement and potential for fraud and violence. We get language models that offer this inaccurate facts and false summaries. Smaller features like handwriting recognition and photo lighting effects now rely on cloud computing, consuming untold amounts of power and adding steps to the process to add minimal usability.
Everywhere you look, intrusive AI features are too intrusive. I can't write an email or text message without my AI assistant offering to help me screw up the whole thing with Gobbledygook. In Google Photos, new AI tools offer search It then returns results for the images I want that are useless compared to the older, AI-less search functionality.
New AI wallpaper Tools are ubiquitous, but they create wallpapers that are impersonal at best, and they can be a bit racist at worst. Had we run out of wallpaper creators? Why do we even need generative AI for wallpapers?
If these tools were all we could expect from AI, I'd say it's time to end the project and go home. It's time to look for what's next.
I think this will probably be smart glasses, but that's for sure Smart glasses and all future mobile technology will be based on AI and machine learning to deliver a robust experience. That's why I'm still optimistic about smartphone AI. I have to be optimistic. Things will get better, much better.
When AI solves a smartphone problem, it becomes valuable
I don't think I could change my home screen… without going through the settings menu, and I'm a real smartphone expert
Today's AI doesn't solve major problems for users. What is the biggest problem you have with your phone? The battery runs out too quickly. Okay, AI could help with this, and I can confirm that The latest AI Forward processors from Qualcomm are also the most efficient high-end smartphone processors I've ever tested. So what else?
Smartphones are still too difficult to use. I really want to use all the cool features, but I don't know how. I know my phone can do a million things, including a million things I never use because I don't know how.
Do you know how to share a photo by connecting your phone to another phone? Do you know how to charge your earbuds using your phone battery? Have you ever created a safety check-in for the way home at night? I know my phone can do all of this, but I would need a refresher to figure it out. Honestly, I don't think I could change my home screen from light mode to dark mode without going through the settings menu, and I'm a real smartphone expert.
AI will solve this problem. I don't need to know whether it's Reverse Wireless Charging on my OnePlus or PowerShare on my Galaxy or USB-C Power Delivery on my iPhone. I simply tell my phone's AI what I want to do and it turns on the wireless power to charge my Galaxy Buds.
I don't need to know that iPhone hides the security check-in feature under iMessagewhile Google hides the same function in the little-known security app. I just tell my phone to let my dad know when I get home safely and it does the rest.
In the future, your smartphone's AI will be the entire interface
Today's AI features are pure tricks. Watch me pour beer from this bottle without picking it up! I bet I can't fit Mickey Mouse in our group photo! Watch me compose a message using AI without even thinking about it! Okay, cool, but this isn't something I want to do every day, or maybe even more than once.
Fortunately, this is not the future of AI. In the near future, we will be interacting with what Qualcomm and other technology companies call AI agents. Think Siri, Gemini and Bixby, but more competent and understanding. The AI will be the interface. You can swipe or open apps, but you don't have to. Just tell the phone what you want and don't worry about the AI. When AI finally makes our smartphone lives easier instead of more complicated, that will be great.