AI Coming to Phones

As we prepare for interviews, we need to think outside the box on how to use AI.

For inspiration, it is helpful to look at what is happening in the world of phones, that little computer in our pocket.

But also, to help ourselves think critically, we need to ask is this a real improvement or a marketing move.

This week we heard about a new Samsung Phone that will:

• Circle to Search Circle anything on your phone, like a product or a place, and the AI on the phone will find it for you. Not overly complex but a step up from what we do now (long press for a popup menu). If it works, it is likely to be copied quickly.

• Live Translate lets you have live conversations in multiple languages. A lot of us probably already suggested this if we did any cases on “Improve Google translate.”

• An AI-powered camera that delivers better image quality and up to 100x zoom. Every time we get a new software update there seems to be a new image quality improvement

• Generative Edit lets you edit pictures and use AI to remove people and objects from photos.

• Transcript Assist helps you transcribe, translate, and summarize voice memos, while Chat Assist helps you craft the right tone for messages. It will be interesting to see if this works any better than other services. I am starting to feel a bit transcribed out.

The foundation for the new features is a combination of AI models from Google. Gemini Pro will power Samsung's Notes, Voice Recorder, and Keyboard apps for summarization features, while Imagen 2 will power photo editing features. Gemini Nano, which comes on-device, will be used for AI features that require less computing power.

That last note on requiring less computing power, it will be interesting to watch what happens with Gemini Nano.