Samsung has gone hard promoting AI in their phones, and now OnePlus has also announced some heavy AI-based features in their new Android OS. Pretty much every other brand is now doing the same, so you can’t escape it.
I’ve been in the market to upgrade my nearly 6-year-old phone, but seeing all these AI features, especially when they rely on Google’s Gemini (or other cloud AI), and it feels deflating.
Will privacy ultimately have to be sacrificed “from now on”?
By not using these AI features, you pay a lot for features you won’t be using. And the usefulness of the device becomes limited as nearly all functions now have AI-based components to them.
I’m totally fine with on-device AI, but many features I’m seeing don’t seem to be on-device, and I’ve spent years trying to stop sending my data to companies like Google. I don’t want to go backwards for the sake of market trends.
What are your future plans when it comes to smartphones?
I’m realizing that. The enshittifcation of smartphones has been rapidly developing, and there’s no going back to how it used to be. I’ve been a smartphone/PDA user from way back when black and white Palm Pilots were a thing… even before that when you had calculators that basically stored addresses, notes, etc.
Those were truly tools back then. No time wasted on the device, and no distractions when using them.
Now? Companies can give away their phones and still make millions off the data harvesting. The marketing of “AI” just makes it easier for them to get users to share even more data.