Updated on August 12th with more details on the three leaked features and their potential rollout across Android, as well as details on the competing iPhone 16 AI software.
Hands-on with the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro smartphones at the launch event in New York. (Photo by ED … (+) JONES/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Next week, Google will unveil the Pixel 9 series of smartphones at its annual Made By Google event, where the company shows off what it wants in a smartphone. Last year's Pixel 8 series got new displays, improved cameras, updated software, and a custom-designed Tensor Mobile chipset.
All of these changes allowed Google to market the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro as AI-first phones, and in the process defined how generative AI would be introduced to the mobile world. A year later, with that market view now the standard, Google can build on that success to anchor its smartphone AI perspective and seize that all-important artificial intelligence advantage.
This week, Google will do the same thing again, but this time it's not about defining the market, it's about strengthening it.
Google has several AI tools it's demonstrated on its Pixel platform, and similar tools are available from several Android manufacturers, including tools to remove, move and edit individual elements of a photo, the option to move facial expressions between photos to create the best possible composite image, and tools to clean up audio recorded in videos.
There are tools to transcribe audio, summarize information from web pages and emails, and search based on screenshots or circled parts of your screen. AI can help you screen spam calls, act as a translator while you travel, and suggest replies, topics, and more as you compose on your smartphone.
All of these debuted with the Pixel 8 family and have since spread across the ecosystem. In fact, Google's Circle Search feature debuted on Samsung's Galaxy AI platform, which mirrors many of the features on the Pixel and adds a number of its own. Other manufacturers have introduced their own AI tools, and chipmakers have hardwired their chips to support AI routines in their AI code.
All of this follows the same direction and spirit that Google set out publicly with the Pixel 8, and will be further underscored by the launch of the Pixel 9 this week and its suite of new AI features.
Google Pixel 8 Pro smartphone during the product launch event (Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Update, Monday, August 12: In addition to the suite potentially being rebranded as “Google AI,” the team at Lifehacker has selected three AI tools that could debut at tomorrow's “Made By Google” event.
“These features include 'Add Me,' which may use AI to add people to your photos, 'Studio,' which appears to be an AI image generator, and 'Pixel Screenshots,' which scans the screenshots in your library and turns them into an easily searchable database.”
The report also notes that these features will require the presumably named Tensor Mobile G4 chipset, which is expected to debut in the Pixel 9 series. Apple took a similar approach when it launched the iPhone 16 platform, restricting the Apple Intelligence suite to either its latest devices or last year's premium-priced iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max.
It's not uncommon for Android manufacturers to release AI services for newer devices and chipsets before bringing them back into the portfolio. Samsung's Galaxy AI was released for the Galaxy S24 family in January, and naturally as the linchpin of the Z Fold6 and Z Flip6 released last week. But Samsung is working to port it back to older Galaxy S models, and bring as many features as possible to its Galaxy A35 and A55 devices.
While the new features may help sales of the Pixel 9 series, they will eventually be available across the Android platform, which should solidify Google's vision of AI smartphones.
There's another competitive dimension to the rise of Android's genre-defining AI: Apple is nowhere to be seen.
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks at the start of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 10, 2024 (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Update: Sunday, August 11: How big a challenge will Apple's iPhone pose in the battle to define generative AI heading into the 2024/25 smartphone launch season? Two key factors are the proliferation of new devices and the availability of software.
Gurman confirmed four iPhone models coming in September (iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max), as well as the possibility of increased sales and greater adoption of the new devices than usual. This is a key takeaway for those gauging the impact of the unnaturally backronymous Apple Intelligence Suite: With the exception of last year's top-of-the-line iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple has no plans to backport its generative AI tools to its untold numbers of existing users.
Effectively, no new hardware means no adoption of Apple Intelligence. According to the latest financial projections Apple provided to investors, the company does not plan or expect a significant increase in revenue. New devices will be coming, but don't expect a sudden surge in upgrades to increase the user base for Apple's AI plan.
Without a wave of existing iPhone users catching on to the zeitgeist, Apple will have a hard time shifting the conversation about generative AI on smartphones from one that Google and its Android partners have decided.
The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro on display on launch day (Image credit: Ming Yen/Getty Images)
Getty Images
Google's Pixel launch came two weeks after the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro. Apple's September launch didn't feature generative AI or any of the new frontiers it was about to explore. The iPhone 15 series is likely the last major smartphone launch without AI. Apple's first opportunity to talk about AI in iPhone didn't come until its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
The unnaturally backronymous Apple Intelligence software won't be available immediately; you'll have to wait until the launch of the iPhone 16 family in September. It won't be backported to existing iPhones (except for the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max in 2023), and Apple Intelligence won't be ready by the iPhone 16's launch in September 2024. A limited set of tools will be included in the October iOS update, with a basic ChatGPT implementation expected by the end of the year, but the full package to be shown at WWDC won't arrive until the first half of 2025.
Apple has yet to catch up with its first generation of AI smartphones.
Meanwhile, Google is pushing Android forward and preparing to release its second generation AI smartphone to the public, and it's Google that will decide the future direction of AI.
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