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Over the past year, I’ve covered every major phone launch in the US, and each one loudly declared the same thing: AI is here, and we are the AI phone you’ve been waiting for. Each of them was accompanied by thunderous applause and favorable changes in share prices. But when I got my hands on these phones, the AI was disappointing to say the least.
The theory is this that smartphones as we know them are evolving into something modern: smartphones with artificial intelligence. The AI smartphone will be a modern type of device that will not require all-day interaction with a grid of applications; you’ll be able to ask him to order a pizza or send an email using an AI-infused voice assistant. You’ll be able to point your camera at a flyer promoting a gig, ask the AI to check if you’re available, and add it to your calendar. You ask him something a friend told you – maybe in an email or text, you’re not sure what – and he’ll find the information for you.
To me personally, all of the above sounds great. I could utilize lend a hand with the tasks I perform hundreds of times a day on my phone, as well as with incoming information and notifications. However, smartphones with artificial intelligence are not available yet, despite what you may have heard. Instead, it feels like a collection of loosely connected technology demonstrations.
Nowadays, the artificial intelligence in your phone can lend a hand you write and rewrite an email to sound more professional, or react to a text message with a disco pigeon emoji. There is artificial intelligence for translating phone calls that works and is quite good. There is artificial intelligence that can turn a nice image of food into something terrifying. The AI in our phones has offered one strange trick after another: sometimes comical, sometimes engaging, but hardly the platform change promised.
All major phone manufacturers are to blame. Samsung kicked off the year with the launch of the Galaxy S24 in January, announcing that “Galaxy AI is already here” a volume suitable for a hockey stadium. There is no doubt that the announced devices exist Good smartphones and run a mix of Samsung and Google’s Gemini Nano models on their device, but I wouldn’t call them AI smartphones.
Supposedly, they can lend a hand distract you from your photos – but instead, you may end up with something even more distracting. The live language translator function for phone calls can be useful, for example, when booking dinner. But it also translated my friend’s statement: “I eat my chair.” (She wasn’t). Most users will notice that AI features fade into the background once the novelty wears off.
Some of them seem useful, especially the screenshot app, which may come in handy if you tend to open endless Chrome tabs on your phone as bookmarks. However, these features, hidden within their respective apps, make it seem like they don’t have much in common. Gemini sort of connects the dots with extensions, but support for various apps is being added slowly – and even with an extension, Gemini can only do so much for you.
Finally, in September we learned about iPhones “built for Apple Intelligence.” I think this says a lot about the state of Apple’s AI that initially shipped with the iPhone 16 without Apple Intelligence. AI features finally arrived in delayed October with iOS 18.1. And if anyone was waiting with bated breath, this first update was probably disappointing.
Apple Intelligence now includes notification and email summaries, tools to change your typing style, and a great modern Siri interface. Notification summaries can be useful, but they’re usually just fun. Writing tools are standard at this point, and Siri is basically the same venerable assistant with a modern coat of paint. There’s still a long way to go, but what we have now certainly doesn’t match a smartphone with artificial intelligence.
It’s not just phones; Overall, this is a arduous moment for AI. Depending on who you ask, AI is either a huge bubble that’s about to burst, or it’s going to turn into a digital God in a few months. Artificial intelligence is being imposed on us from all sides: it appears in Google search results, it hides in every Meta product, it greets you by name in the Spotify app. With AI, it’s strenuous to separate the signal from the noise because the noise is everywhere and it’s so damn thunderous!
And there really might be a signal there – especially when it comes to our phones. Siri could really become more useful with an Apple Intelligence update this spring that will allow it to take actions in apps via something called app intents. Developers will be able to reveal specific actions – such as ordering a pizza that AI proponents promise – making Siri available at the system level. It looks like Google is preparing a similar framework for Android 16 that could lend a hand bridge the gap between Gemini and single apps without having to install an entire extension. And who knows? Perhaps Bixby will also be included in the game.
The problem is that after a full year of supposedly game-changing artificial intelligence on our mobile devices with no effect, it’s starting to sound like phone makers are crying wolf. True AI smartphones need to be developed soon before our collective patience begins to run out.
Photography: Allison Johnson / The Verge
