For me, AI is a tool like any other. And as such, I want it to be actually useful to me. We have a new teaser for the Pixel 9 Pro listing 22 AI features. I’m thinking about which ones would actually be useful to me and which ones are not, and how would they attract me away from the competition. Now, the competition is very strong – we have Apple Intelligence and Galaxy AI. So, Google is playing with the big boys here.
Galaxy AI: the key advertising point of the S24 series
Image Source — Samsung
We start with Galaxy AI, which was introduced with the S24 series.
Here’s a brief overview of the Galaxy AI features:
- Live Translate: Real-time translation for text and speech.
- Interpreter: Translates conversations in real-time.
- Chat Assist: Provides assistance during chats.
- Note Assist: Enhances note-taking with AI suggestions.
- Transcript Assist: Helps with creating and managing transcripts.
- Circle to Search: Allows users to circle text or objects to search for more information.
- AI Photo Editing: Offers suggestions for photo improvements.
- Video Enhancements: Enhances video quality using AI.
The first two… well, I think they’re super useful if you travel a lot and don’t speak a lot of languages. In my daily life, I don’t happen to travel very often, and I happen to speak four languages. But when I do travel I think I’ll love those. Only if I traveled more… Note Assist on the other hand is something I don’t see myself using whatsoever. I’ve studied a lot and I love studying, and I am a (self-proclaimed) master note-taker. I don’t think I need any help with that particular aspect. I feel like the same applies to Transcript Assist ( I can see myself using it only if I dread the subject that’s being transcribed and I don’t wanna hear a word of it. Which is a rare occurrence given my natural curiosity and knowledge-hungry nature).
I love Circle to Search, but it’s also available on Pixels, so it’s not an exclusive Samsung feature to draw me to Samsung’s AI.
As for photo editing, that’s useful but it looks fake as all hell, just like most images generated by AI at the moment. At least for now, I don’t like it, but as it evolves, I’m sure I’ll like it more. And this is not Samsung’s fault, don’t get me wrong! An image-generative AI system that I don’t scrutinize at the moment just simply doesn’t exist.
Apple Intelligence: The Big Promises
Image Source – Apple
Here’s what the Apple Intelligence features are expected to be:
- Email Tone Adjustment: Change the tone of emails to be more professional, friendly, or concise.
- Proofreading: AI-powered grammar and style checking for emails.
- TL;DR Summarization: Generates summaries of emails highlighting key points.
- Priority Notifications: Uses AI to prioritize personal notifications.
- Genmoji: Creates custom emojis based on user input.
- Image Playground: Builds custom images from descriptive words. (animation, sketch, illustration)
- Image Wand: Converts rough sketches into polished images.
- Enhanced Siri: Uses natural language understanding and personal context for more accurate responses. Also you can text to Siri.
- Memory Movie: Creates a movie about a specific person from your Photo Library.
Okay, I may be an Apple fan and I like most of those. But Apple isn’t critique-proof, so here we go. Proofreading as an AI feature? Like, come on, I’ve had grammar checking since 2007’s Microsoft Word (maybe even before that, but I would’ve been too young to use it). And tools for that already exist, even using AI, so this one shouldn’t be advertised as much.
I see myself using the email tone adjustment, just to make sure my emails sound as I want them to, and I think this is useful. And I straight-up love all the Siri enhancements and that personal context. Honestly, that’s kind of what came to mind when I thought of a personal AI assistant on my phone, so kudos to Apple for figuring this one out.
I will not address image generations as much. I can see why some people would use that, but I’m very old-fashioned in that sense and I love to sketch, draw, or paint with my hands. I don’t want AI to be doing illustrations for me, so there’s that.
Genmoji sounds like fun, but I can see myself getting sick of it within a couple of weeks. The same happened with Memoji for me: at first, I was sending those everywhere and having so much fun with them, and then… I got sick of them and now default to the good-ol’ smiley face with heart eyes.
Pixel 9 Pro’s AI… what difference could it make?
Pixel 9 Pro leaked render. | Image Source – OnLeaks
Google’s 22 reasons to switch to Pixel 9 Pro are all AI features. Here they are as they appear in the video (special thanks go to YouTube user @Kdm_pw for making the effort to write all of those down):
- Wishing your photo had more scenery.
- Forgetting the movie your friend recommended.
- Forgetting the show your friend recommended.
- Phone calls where you can barely hear the other person.
- Concert videos that look too far away.
- Your toddler looking everywhere except the camera.
- Scrubbing videos for answers.
- Gatekeeping.
- So many emails. So little time.
- Screening calls yourself.
- Half the fam looking at the camera.
- Not capturing the right moment.
- Spending hours on hold.
- The sky not being right.
- The same old memes.
- Lost in translation.
- Forgetting what restaurant your friend liked.
- Awkward photo requests to strangers.
- Mom never being in the pic.
- Photobombers.
- Blurry photos.
- Writer’s block.
At first glance, those look super cool. Google doesn’t name the features, but most of them point to a feature we know. We have Best Take, Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, and maybe we’ll have some AI image generation tech (“Wishing your photo had more scenery”), Hold for Me, and Clear Calling. Help Me Write and Ask this video are other features hinted at in the video.I’m wondering what will happen if your toddler isn’t looking at the camera or if half the family isn’t looking at the camera. Maybe that’s another reference to Best Take, but we’ll see. It definitely sounds useful though, so I may be interested in using this one.
I am also curious about the scenery generation. Image-generating AI is not at the level I’d love it to be, and maybe Google can change this. That will be something that will make the Pixel 9 Pro stand out. Especially if it aims for more realistic images instead of illustrations.
Some of these seem cryptic to me, like the “Random photo requests to strangers”, as if AI can come out of the phone to take a photo of me and my boyfriend, holding the Pixel… or what if my mom is never in the picture? Will the AI cut her out from another picture and position her in? What’s with that? Most likely it will be similar to scenery generation, but that’s just my speculation at this point. I don’t know if I’ll like this one or not, it all depends on how the result will look.
Honestly put, most of those seem like things we already have, pretty much, apart from that scenery generation (we have that too, but the level at which it’s at could use some work). I am prone to find useful the reminders and Hold for me, for sure.
Helping with writing and figuring out the key elements in a bunch of emails is useful too, alright, but… we have that too. I’m not saying that just because we have it, the Pixel 9 isn’t going to attract customers and that the feature sucks. I’m just saying I’m not seeing anything particularly new that the Pixel 9 will bring that others won’t.
Despite that, the Pixel 9 series has lots of things that are getting me excited for the event on August 13. Like, the new Fold with its reportedly improved hinge, or the refined designs on the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9. I am just not sure if Google will manage to win the AI race now that Apple is joining in. And I mean, come on, Apple has Siri getting to know me, myself, and I, and my personal context. I sure hope Google offers something similar to that, if not, Apple, at least for me, could be the winner.
