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You can’t go to a tech-centric show without someone chatting about artificial intelligence. At MWC 2024, Qualcomm and others championed AI in mobile phones, cars, and more, while Samsung showcased its Galaxy S24 mobile phone suite and showed off the Galaxy AI features included.
Now, AI has probably been around in some form for years. To be sure, there is no true general purpose AI with human-level intelligence or cognition. But machine learning algorithms have been providing musings and streaming recommendations, translating text, and figuring out what’s in a photo for some time. But 2023 saw the rise of generative AI, which allows smart software to generate something based on instructions and inference, rather than simply leveraging what it already has.
Generative AI, powered by the likes of ChatGPT, is gaining a bit of traction for all sorts of tasks, from vacation planning to content creation. In consumer technology, you only need to look at the smart photo editing and language recognition capabilities of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Google Pixel 8 Pro to see this kind of AI in action.
It’s no surprise, then, that the still-rumored iPhone 16 will come with generative AI capabilities, and Apple is keeping up with the trend by introducing a new level of AI-powered smartphone tools. There is a high possibility that it will appear.
But I’m not depressed about it.
Focus on the core
Of course, AI has played a role in iPhones for years, from the Neural Engine in Apple A-series chips that power machine learning algorithms to the semantic rendering that consistently helps iPhones rank on best camera phones lists. . However, I’m not too keen on Apple delving into generative AI.
Taking photos on Apple’s phones itself is hardly “authentic” considering how the camera system captures data and images before you press the shutter button and stitches together multiple shots. There’s never a better chance of capturing a perfect snapshot of the exact scene you’re photographing.
Still, the applied image processing often feels the most realistic of all the phones I’ve used. Depending on the scene, your iPhone will keep dark areas dark and highlights to shine as much as possible. This is one of the main reasons I use the iPhone 15 Pro Max, despite the temptations of Android.
Although the iPhone has a wealth of editing options and filters, I tend to enjoy photos created with default settings (or at least default settings for a particular mode). These photos are either very Instagrammable or of a standard that would be acceptable to include on this website. The idea of introducing more AI technology to play with these photos and move them away from the realism that I feel iPhone photos contain doesn’t tickle my phone-loving synapses.
I have no problem with the Pixel smartphone’s generative AI, as it has always seemed like a guinea pig for technological innovation. Additionally, Google does a great job with AI tools and integrations. And on Galaxy smartphones, generative AI kind of fits into the whole “here’s a feature for everything” maximalist vibe that I feel Samsung’s flagship smartphones have.
I’m not against smarter Siri or other behind-the-scenes optimizations with smart processing. But I don’t want to stuff the next generation of iPhones with generative AI that manipulates photos beyond realism or provides too many suggestions.
That’s because I consider the iPhone to be an inherently utilitarian device. This is a simple, somewhat manual operation where you give it permission to siphon data from text as needed, rather than having an AI-powered assistant or interface do everything for you. I feel like Apple’s commitment to combining perhaps limited interface and customization with a highly curated app store encapsulates this feeling. The iPhone isn’t a super-smart gadget; it’s an everyday tool, much like a watch.
On the contrary, the design and intent of the best Android smartphones is more like a gadget that you can interact with and do whatever you want. I’m fine with that, and there’s a place for such androids in my life.
But what I love about the iPhone is its simplicity, privacy, ease of use, and features like stylish tools. As such, it feels boring compared to its Android counterpart, but if you need something to get things done without being hampered by a ton of AI features, this is a modest attraction for me.
Apple has a reputation for taking existing technology and refining it to make the user experience extremely smooth. So there’s a good chance you can do that using generative AI.
But at this point, I feel that the generative AI isn’t as capable as I would like it to be. In my experience, even Google’s Magic Editor isn’t that robust. I want the next generation iPhone to focus on delivering what Apple is known for as an “out-of-the-box” phone, rather than getting sucked into the AI hype.
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