The right idea for the future of phones

The Google Pixel 8 Pro gives an early glimpse of how life with Al in everything will look, making it feel unique despite it being almost entirely run-of-the-mill

- Shouvik Das

How much better can H phones get? At some point in the past two-three years, we reached a point when no smartphone is really bad. Even the least expensive phones now have most of the applications you would use frequently, while anything beyond the mid-range price bracket is good enough for pretty much everything. Smartphones, therefore, have become all about fine margins some extra screen brightness here, a few extra camera pixels there.... The Google Pixel 8 Pro does things a little differently in this regard.

To be sure, Google has never really played the specifications war-it has always presented its erstwhile Nexus, and now the Pixel line of phones, as an ideal example of the software experience it envisions. But while it was all about the Android experience till now, this year Google appears to have made it all about its Artificial Intelligence (AI) prowess with its Pixel 8 series. From what you write, to what you see and what you hear the Pixel 8 Pro has AI everywhere, making the smartphone feel more dynamic, and, at the same time, more concerning.

WHY IS IT CONCERNING?

Greater use of AI today directly correlates to greater use of data-specifically, personal data. The rationale is simple in any field, AI algorithms will continue to get better when you keep showing them what is wrong. To do that, companies need to collect data, which is what leads to concerns about what the future holds for your personal data.

Google has tried to alleviate these concerns by stating that the Pixel 8 Pro runs "distilled" versions of the company's generative AI models, which are not just limited to text, "on device". "On device" here really suggests that the AI model doesn't need to access Google's cloud servers every time you use it. While this is good to speed up Al access and give AI features to you offline, Google has never explicitly specified that all the data will stay on your device, forever.