I remain skeptical of the way artificial intelligence has been used recently in smartphones. AI and machine learning have been present in phones for years already, helping manage and improve phone performance in all kinds of areas. But lately, AI has stepped into the spotlight as the selling point of choice for the Samsung Galaxy S24 and Google Pixel 8, and possibly the iPhone 16 later this year.
But to me, many of the ways that this AI surfaces involves gimmicks. That's not to say that things like generative image editing or live in-call translation are not impressive feats of computing, nor that they don't add any value to the phones they're on. But it's not yet clear if these features are going to be something users will want to keep using once the novelty wears off.
