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Many of the features introduced are similar to those seen on Google’s smartphones, particularly on its most recent Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. Eric Chou, Samsung Australia’s director of mobile experience, said the Galaxy phones didn’t need to compete directly with Google to have better AI. Instead, Samsung wants to offer the most options and the greatest diversity of AI features by partnering with others, including Microsoft, Adobe and Google itself.
Samsung’s Eric Chou said users were in control of the AI features.
“We are uniquely positioned because we have put so much investment into AI services ourselves, but Samsung success often is also built on partnership. Between us and Google it’s about how do we drive greater Android adoption, and give all Android customers a great experience, but also at the same time have this differentiation that we have our own?” he said. An example is Circle to Search, a Galaxy S24 feature that lets you circle anything on screen with your finger or a stylus and get web results about it.
“It is actually co-developed with Google, and at some stage it will probably come to other Android devices as well. But again, it’s about ensuring that Android customers are getting an experience that is different to, say, iOS.”
Samsung was sure to detail measures it’s taking to assuage the various cultural fears associated with AI. For example, when the phone call translation feature is activated, a message in the receiver’s language informs them an AI translation service is in use. Photos edited with AI have a watermark applied to the image and the metadata.
And there’s an option in the settings to disable any features that require user data to be sent for cloud processing. This would preclude some of the image generation tools, but would still allow on-device AI like translations and text analysis.
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“Right now there’s no real regulation, or regulatory body, that governs what AI should look like. We’ve taken a proactive approach,” Chou said.
“It is certainly something where we want to ensure people are comfortable, and give them that transparency, but also give them full control. If they choose not to leverage AI, they can choose not to.”
The new phones will be available from February 7, starting at $1400, $1700 and $2200 for the S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra respectively, which is a slight increase in pricing over last year. As always, Samsung and various retailers are offering incentives for ordering before release, including free tablets and earbuds, or storage increases.