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You have probably heard about Galaxy AI, Samsung‘s latest contribution to developing AI-based features. This AI development will reportedly make its way to nearly 100 million Galaxy devices just in 2024.
In the Galaxy Unpacked 2024 event, the launch event for the Galaxy S24 series, TM Roh, President and Head of Samsung MX (Mobile Experience) said “Galaxy AI in the Galaxy S24 series is a hybrid AI using both on-device and cloud-based AI. This year, we will introduce Galaxy AI to about 100 million Galaxy smartphones for the global expansion of mobile AI,”
Some key features of Galaxy AI
One notable and hyped addition by Galaxy AI to the Galaxy S24 series is the ability to search anything on your screen just by drawing a circle around it. Galaxy AI recognizes the subject and works with Google to show you similar results from the internet, just like Google Lens does, but in a more seamless way.
This feature is called ‘Circle to Search’ and was developed by Google. Notably, Circle to Search will also be available to the Google Pixel 8 and Google Pixel 8 Pro starting from January 31.
Another talked-about addition offered by Galaxy AI to the Galaxy S24 series devices is the ability to live translate your calls and conversations in general. This could be seriously helpful for select users such as travelers, given that voice recognition works flawlessly. Additionally, Galaxy AI also converts your voice to text and will also provide a summary of the conversation later, if you ask. Again, this will be a great feature once the voice recognition becomes fully accurate.
There are also some one-click photo editing capabilities added to the new series of flagships. It includes features like blurring the background or auto-framing the subject.
Galaxy AI feels too good to be true?
In an interesting yet disheartening event, TM Roh talked about Samsung not reviewing the option of charging users for the AI features yet. He confirmed that users will get to enjoy the AI features at least until 2025. It leaves us with an implication that users will have to pay for the (or at least some of the) currently available AI features in the Galaxy S24 series going forward.
Samsung may bring more advanced AI features to its Galaxy devices in the future which may require significant R&D. And here comes the concept of subscription for features on your phone. Galaxy AI involves both server-side and on-device models, and we will need to see whether Samsung considers charging for features that are running on-device.