The whole idea of an AI phone is a rather new one, but I’d argue that Google has been both the driver and frontrunner of phones that put artificial intelligence at their center.
This started with the Google Pixel 6 and its Tensor chip, which was built around delivering strong neural network machine-learning performance rather than the best CPU and graphics processing speeds. Then, with the Pixel 8, we saw Google really embrace AI features, especially those with generative capabilities like the Magic Editor.
While some might argue that the Samsung Galaxy S24 was the first ‘AI phone’, I’d say the Pixel 8 was the one that got the ball rolling, especially as Samsung used Google tech to underpin some Galaxy AI features.
This was all built upon with the Google Pixel 9 and its stablemates, which all felt like they put AI at the heart of the Pixel experience, rather than just offer tools on top of a standard smartphone user interface.
But with the Samsung Galaxy S25 and Galaxy Z Fold 7 landing with improved AI features, and Apple Intelligence starting to get up to speed and offer a solid suite of features on compatible iPhones, as well as some synchronicity with Macs, Google’s AI phone crown could be up for grabs.
So I feel that for Google to keep ahead and continue to blaze a trail for practical, and hopefully safe, consumer use, it’ll need to bring more to the table with the Pixel 10.
Accelerated AI
But what would that look like? Well, that’s a good question.
In some ways, Google already offers up a good suite of AI-powered tools, from smart call handling and document summaries to real-time translation and photo editing tools that can rework entire shots. And a lot of these are easy to access and use, something which helped make the Google Pixel 9 Pro our phone of 2024.
However, there’s room for more. Ideally, I’d like to see some of these smart AI tools work across the whole of the Pixel Launcher experience.
For example, I’d like to use Gemini to summarize what I’ve got on my Pixel phone, say, telling me apps that I’ve not used for ages or games that I’ve not played and may have forgotten about.
And I’d be very keen to have the summarization tools built out to provide me with snippets of information in third-party apps, say to quickly summarize a chapter of an ebook so I can easily pick up where I’ve left off without reading back over stuff for a refresher.
More than anything else, I’d love to have audio readouts of all kinds of text in a voice as close to natural language speaking as possible. I listen to a lot of podcasts, especially when I’m commuting or cooking, but this does mean I can fall behind on a backlog of reading.
To tackle this, I’d love to be able to ask a system-level AI to read aloud a magazine feature either from a digital source or scanned in via a phone’s camera. I’ve stumbled across some AI tools that can sort of do this, but none deliver what I’m looking for and in a seamless way that AI luminaries tend to tout.
This isn’t a pipedream, as Google already has NotebookLM with its Audio Overviews that can make a podcast out of various inputs. So if this tech could be baked into the next-generation Pixel Launcher or the rumored Pixel 10 phones, it would be a boon for me and likely other people looking for aural satisfaction.
Ultimately, while I appreciate the creative opportunities of some AI tools in terms of generating images or deeply manipulating photos, I’d like AI in general to be more about making my daily life easier and helping me better digest the almost overwhelming amount of content there is to consume in the virtual and real world.
I have faith that Google is one of the companies best placed to do this, even with my nervousness about how much the search giant’s algorithms already influence the dissemination of information.
But I do think it needs to use each new generation of Pixel phone to keep pushing the envelope, while the likes of Apple and Samsung appeal to the everyday phone users, not just to keep the AI phone crown, but also to push AI innovation forward in a way that’s genuinely useful and productive for people.
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