“A truly impressive tool”: equipped with generative Artificial Intelligence, new smartphones fascinate and worry

The iPhone 16, which officially comes out this Monday, September 9, marks a turning point in the history of smartphones. Equipped with generative artificial intelligence, these new phones fascinate and worry

New smartphones equipped with generative artificial intelligence tools appeal to their future users but also raise fears, as in Santa Cruz, California, where AFP offered passersby the chance to test Google's Pixel 9, which has been on sale since last month.

“I asked it a question and it gave me a quick answer,”, said Matthew Day, who wanted to know if the new handset could tell him a good place to go fishing. “It's a lot better than my current phone, I'm telling you.”

California Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin asked the smartphone for a funny photo of her dog in front of the Capitol. New smartphones have “certainly incredible tools for doing creative things and finding information,”, she acknowledges.

But she worries about potential malicious uses. “We need to put in place safeguards and regulations to prevent this from wreaking havoc in certain industries or communities,”, she added. She therefore supports a California law recently adopted by the State Parliament, aimed at preventing the use of generative AI for disinformation and falsification purposes, 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, in particular, have added numerous tools to their software and platforms, aimed at creating 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, September 9, the first devices to feature its own generative AI system, “Apple Intelligence”.

“Not very revolutionary”

Leilani Gilpin, a computer science professor at the University of Chicago, questions the need to put new technology in people's pockets, especially given the propensity of these tools to “hallucinate”, that is, to invent facts, with aplomb, when they don't have the answer.

“Whether it's for trivia questions or to generate images or other things, there will be invented information, it's just the way AI models work”,she emphasizes. 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 pitches 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.