why new gadgets with artificial intelligence can’t handle cell phones

For two decades, the smartphone has become the center of the digital lives of billions of people. The post-PC era has not meant the extinction of computers, neither desktop nor laptop, but they have lost great relevance compared to what was observed in the 90s and early 2000s.

Over the past twenty years, there have been some attempts to replace the mobile phone, or at least to aggressively complement it. The best bet was tablets, which promised the versatility of a mobile phone but with a much larger screen size, with what that entailed. They weren’t a failure, but they certainly didn’t create the market that many companies expected.

With the advent of artificial intelligence, interest from technology companies has resurfaced. create products that replace the mobile phone or at least complement it on a daily basis and comfortably, as smart watches do, an accessory that has been able to adapt to the reality of its use. It has not replaced the smartphone, but it coexists with it. Betting on new devices can’t seem to do it.

AI PIN

One of the most surprising presentations in recent years was that of Humane, a company founded by former Apple employees which offers a technological PIN code controlled mainly by voice and which is a real failure. We were able to try it and the feeling it gives us is far from what we expect from a product with similar expectations, especially since it costs $699 and requires a monthly subscription.

In recent days they have been published numerous analyses, the vast majority very negative, among which MKBHD, the popular American YouTuber, stood out. In the video, Marques made it clear that this was one of the worst products he had ever tried.

One of the biggest problems with this device is that it handed everything over to the AI, so if the system made a mistake, there was no plan B. Additionally, at missing a screenall visual interaction depended on the laser projector, which was far from a viable alternative to the panels used in smartphones.

In theory, Humane’s AI PIN says that it does not replace the smartphone, but rather a complement, but despite this It requires its own monthly subscription, uses a different phone number than the phone, and syncs information with virtually no other service.

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Rabbit R1

Another recently announced product is the Rabbit R1, a device that is more like a mobile phone in that it has a screen and artificial intelligence. It is true that its price makes it much more attractive than the AI ​​PIN. It costs 199 dollars and does not require a monthly subscription.

Reviews of this device have not yet been released, but in the tests seen so far it suffers from the same problem as the AI ​​PIN. What it does can also be done on a smartphone, although it also allows many other things. Not offering anything particularly distinctive makes it a curious, but impractical product, much less serving as a cell phone replacement. In this case, not even as a complement, because it doesn’t do anything that the mobile phone cannot do with the appropriate applications.

Unlimited Colgante

The last of the proposals of this type announced is the Limitless suspension, which is reminiscent of the Humane PIN but has more modest characteristics, a more comfortable format and more limited functionality. In this case it is a device that records what we say.

The idea behind this pendant is that AI can be used to convert conversations, meetings and chats into understandable text which can then be translated, summarized or stored. The problem is that this is something that mobile phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra already do in one of their many AI-related features.

Other approaches

In addition to these bets, all focused on artificial intelligence and born after the success of ChatGPT, there are other bets that can also seek to substitute cell phones, but they do it with another approach, we do not don’t know yet. know if it is successful or not. The best example is that of Apple’s new virtual reality glasses, the Vision Pro, which is a device that is not even linked to the mobile phone, in the way that a computer or a tablet are not. But its use cases conflict with computers and smartphones. Part of Apple wants the iPhone to be used less and Glasses more, at least in some scenarios. In the medium and short term, it does not appear that this can happen.

We must also not forget Meta, which has in its collaboration with Ray-Ban one of the best executed bets to use artificial intelligence. Glasses from Mark Zuckerberg’s company They do not seek to replace the smartphone, but rather to complement it, like headphones or watches.. Yes, they integrate artificial intelligence and allow the use of an advanced assistant, but at no time do we have the impression that the use of these glasses limits the use of the smartphone or does the same things but more clumsy way, as is the case with the rest of the products we have talked about in this article.