GeraldSince the debut of Samsung’s Galaxy AI (artificial intelligence) with the chaebol’s Galaxy S24 flagship in early 2024, the tech landscape around AI has grown considerably and with the recent launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Fold 6 and its updated Galaxy AI, some may feel a sense of AI fatigue. However, the Korean tech giant remains steadfast in advancing its AI agenda on the one device category that few competitors have a global presence and lead on – by simplifying and enriching lives through mobile devices.
While many of the AI features touted by tech and software companies are essentially rebranded machine learning capabilities, their resurgence cannot be overlooked and Samsung’s Galaxy AI exemplifies this trend, by encouraging users to explore AI use beyond traditional functions like texting, web browsing, and gaming. By enhancing email composition, planning travel itineraries, and even serving as a personal language interpreter, Galaxy AI is shifting user behavior towards maximizing the full potential of their smartphones, and this continued innovation underscores Samsung’s trajectory in leading the AI revolution across mobile technology.
Few would remember but long before AI entered the zeitgeist with great fervour around two years ago, and before machine learning was the then flavour of tech world, Samsung was already using technology to improve the user experience, whether it was through enhancing images taken using the phone’s camera, or simplifying editing of photos on the device.
With the Galaxy S24, Samsung introduced Circle to Search, which allowed users to search for circled items anywhere on the screen, photo assist, and live translate AI features that translates all phone conversations in real-time.
“Samsung has been investing heavily in AI research, alongside our strong heritage in providing the best-in-class experience to our users. I would say it was a longstanding effort in the making; there has been a lot of investment, and it’s not just about a business unit’s effort but about the research team’s effort in providing the foundation for the current AI experience,” shared Jisun Park, Head of Smartphone Software Engineering Group, Samsung Mobile eXperience during a media session in Paris, right after the company announced its latest Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Fold 6.
New to the devices are updated AI upgrades, including Interpreter, which aids two way in personal interpretation without the Internet,and Sketch-to-Image, which turns your scribbles into a visual, and he took the opportunity to provide Geek Culture and other media present the opportunity to understand the goals and motivations of his team tasked with bringing AI to Samsung’s mobile devices.
“Circle To Search is the top feature that most Galaxy AI users use. Other top features are Photo Assist and Live Translate. These are the top three features most people use. We are also introducing new features with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6. We will see and make sure those new features will be polished and improved going forward.” Park shared.
While Circle to Search, a top feature co-developed with Google, would be added to the Flip and Fold 6, it needed to be adapted for both folding phones.
“Even for Circle To Search, we worked closely together to determine which devices to roll out first and what features we could provide for Galaxy devices,” Park revealed, highlighting the complexities involved in ensuring compatibility across different devices, especially given the unique form factors of the Flip and Fold 6 compared to the candy bar-style Galaxy S24.
“Foldable devices are a completely new form factor, and their usage is different from that of bar-type phones. One aspect, for example, is the Galaxy Z Fold 6 device, which features a larger screen. So, we have to focus on optimizing the larger screen for that phone, even for the new features.” Park elaborated.
The new Interpreter feature is one of Samsung’s most polished innovations thus far, but many other concepts did not make it to the final release, but Park held back from sharing any details, given the competitive nature of the AI landscape.
“We believe in providing the best user experience. Whenever we come up with ideas, we explore them further and investigate possible solutions as well. If we want to deliver the experience but the quality isn’t there yet, we will pause that feature until the next release. We are purely focusing on the user experience, and that’s how we decide which features to put on which Galaxy devices.”
With the rapid pace at which Samsung is developing AI tools, a ‘tech debt’ is an inevitable consequence. While Galaxy AI has been retroactively rolled out for older devices like 2023’s S23, Flip 5, and Fold 5, this may not always be feasible in the future. As technology advances, the growing complexity and resource demands of new AI features may limit their backward compatibility.
“We are trying to democratize AI by introducing Galaxy AI to more devices. When we make decisions about devices where we can expand these features, we consider other factors. For example, the chipset performance, audio characteristics, and other things as well. So, those factors are considered when we expand, for example, Live Translate, to other devices,” he explained.
“Once we are confident about providing that experience to the level where users can be satisfied, that’s when we decide to expand to those devices. We are considering expanding these features to the Galaxy A (Samsung’s budget mobile phone range) series as well, but nothing has been decided yet.”
As it stands, the accessible entry point to AI is through mobile devices, and Park sees great potential in multimodality (using text, voice, images, or video to prompt AI).
“If you think about human perception, we can read, we can hear, and we can see images. Multimodality is a very natural evolution of artificial intelligence,” he noted. And to bring this vision to life, Park admitted that Google might not be the only partner involved.
“We have a principle of open collaboration. Right now, Google is our key partner to help realize that experience and work together on solutions. We are open to collaborating with other partners if that will help us provide the user experience we want to provide. That’s where we are right now, but there are no specifics we can share. Based on the open collaboration principle, we’re not closing off possibilities.”
While discussions with OpenAI might be in progress, the future remains uncertain, especially given the computational costs associated with providing the best answers and image generation.
And Samsung is also planning for the future bottomline, as AI is not expected to be a free feature that tech companies are rolling out.
“Previously, we announced that Galaxy AI would be provided for free until the end of 2025. We will see where the industry and technology go after that. We don’t have specific plans to make features ‘not free’ after 2025. The decision will only be made after there are more data points for observation,” addressed Park to quickly alleviate any concerns.
Ultimately, Galaxy AI aims to help users maximize their creativity, a sentiment Park expressed with enthusiasm for the new sketch-to-image function:
“There’s a feature called sketch-to-image which provides a way for me to convert my poor drawing into a better one. I’m not good at drawing or painting or any art but this is very interesting to me because it helps me create something I can think but I cannot express. So, this is an area where we are focusing on to help people unleash their creativity and this is one of the features I like,” proclaimed Park as he broke out in a rare grin during the interview.
Turning our crappy bird drawings into bunny rabbits (see above) is not quite perfect but it’s definitely something we can get behind.
Gerald currently straddles between his love of video games and board gaming. There’s nothing that interests him more than trying out the newest and fanciest gadget in town as well. He dreams of publishing a board game sometime in the future!
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