After Google’s Pixel 9, Apple’s iPhone 16 will be unveiled on September 9. With a key place for artificial intelligence.
New smartphones equipped with generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools are attracting attention from their future users but also raising fears, as in Santa Cruz, California, where AFP offered passers-by the chance to test Google’s Pixel 9, which went on sale last month.
“I asked him a question and he gave me a quick answer,” said Matthew Day, who wanted to know if the new handset could tell him a good spot to go fishing. “It’s a lot better than my current phone, I’ll tell you that.”
California Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin asked her smartphone for a funny photo of her dog in front of the Capitol.
New smartphones “certainly have incredible tools for doing creative things and finding information,” she acknowledges.
But she is concerned about potential malicious uses. “We need to put in place safeguards and regulations to prevent this from wreaking havoc in certain sectors or communities,” she added.
She therefore supports a Californian law recently adopted by the State Parliament, aimed at preventing the use of generative AI for the purposes of disinformation and falsification, in particular.
Popularized by ChatGPT since the end of 2022, generative AI makes it possible to produce high-quality content (texts, images, videos, etc.) on a simple query in everyday language.
Google, Microsoft and Meta, among others, have added many tools to their software and platforms, aiming to create a kind of AI assistants that write messages for their users, answer their questions, etc.
Apple is set to unveil its new iPhone lineup on Monday, the first devices to feature its own generative AI system, “Apple Intelligence.”
“Not very revolutionary”
Leilani Gilpin, a computer science professor at the university, questions the need to put new technology in people’s pockets, especially given the tools’ propensity to “hallucinate”—that is, to invent facts with aplomb when they don’t have the answer.
“Whether it’s for trivia questions or generating images or other things, there will be fabricated information, that’s just the way AI models work,” she says.
She likes the idea of engaging the machine in conversation while out walking, but she would prefer to talk to a real person.
“I work on a lot of these technologies, and I feel like it’s very similar to the marketing arguments I’ve seen before,” she said.
“I don’t think it’s going to be very revolutionary.”
She also finds that the smartphone’s AI gets lost in details and lacks conciseness in its responses.
“Impressive”
Igor Gaspar and his friends chose to test the Pixel 9’s “Add Me” function, which allows you to take a group photo and add the photographer, so as not to forget anyone.
It’s not generative AI, but “it’s a really impressive tool,” the 23-year-old enthuses.
“But in the current context of information warfare, I think a lot of people might be scared off by some of the futuristic aspects, like being able to add myself to a photo in such a realistic way.”
He fears that integrating these features into iPhones will make him lose his taste for Apple products, unless he feels he has a complete grasp of the technology.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable with something so sophisticated that we don’t even know how it works on our phones,” he said, adding that he wants to “have a choice” about whether or not to use the new tools.
Major companies in nearby Silicon Valley are gauging public and policy reactions as they unveil new generative AI products, and recalibrating their models accordingly.
For example, Google configured its AI assistant Gemini to refuse to talk about elections or politics on the Pixel. And the image-generating tool can’t represent real people.
