From the looks of it, generative AI is going to define next year's flagship phones. Samsung has already confirmed that its 2024 phones will offer generative AI features. However, a new rumor suggests that the company might offer these features as part of a subscription service.
Generative AI works on-device, meaning that you'll be able to use ChatGPT-like functionality on the Galaxy S24 even when it's not connected to the internet.
Putting gen-AI features behind a paywall would be counterproductive
The technology that will bring generative AI features to the Galaxy S24 has already seen the light of day. Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset last month. It will power a whole host of on-device AI features on Snapdragon variants of the Galaxy S24 series. Samsung's Exynos 2400 chipset for the Galaxy S24 is also said to heavily focus on generative AI.
According to an unsubstantiated rumor on X, Samsung is “actively pursuing” the idea of providing on-device AI features of the Galaxy S24 through a subscription service. Precisely what form this subscription service could take remains to be seen, but of all the subscription-based services that the company could launch, this would be the most counterproductive.
There's no other evidence to support this rumor right now so it's entirely possible that this doesn't amount to anything more than just a rumor. It's hard to imagine that other manufacturers would charge for on-device generative AI features, particularly when this technology isn't popular and you need to give the average user some time to understand what this tech can do for them. Putting it behind a paywall on day one will make sure that most of them don't even both to try it out.
