Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority
I can’t convey how much I hate subscriptions and the trend towards everything-as-a-service. Unfortunately, even today’s smartphone AI features aren’t going to be safe from monthly fees. But there’s no way in hell I’m paying for an AI subscription when I’m already paying for everything from YouTube Premium and big-name streaming services to Google One and gaming services.
The AI subscription game is already in full swing in the smartphone arena as Google offers Gemini Advanced for a monthly fee. Meanwhile, Samsung has confirmed that its Galaxy AI features will be free until the end of 2025, when it’s expected to introduce a subscription of some sort. Even Apple doesn’t appear to be safe from the AI subscription trend, as Bloomberg suggested Apple Intelligence could become a paid feature in three years. Count me out.
Do you have a subscription to an AI service?
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AI and subscriptions? It’s a match made in hell
With some exceptions, I feel that many highly touted AI features on phones are simply unexciting and unimaginative. Oh look, yet another AI feature that falls into the category of summarization, image generation, or generative editing. I can totally see how these features would be handy, but I don’t find most of these features useful or exciting enough to pay for a subscription. Your mileage might vary.
It’s hard for me to justify $20 a month for Gemini Advanced or even $10 a month for a hypothetical Galaxy AI Plus service when I wouldn’t use these AI features very often in the first place. I can justify spending cash on YouTube Premium and my Prime Video subscription because I actually use these services for multiple hours a week. But I can’t stomach spending even $10 a month for a fancy chatbot or editing tools that I might not even use once a month. It all feels like a way to milk customers and placate greedy investors who demand infinite growth.
It's tough to justify an AI subscription for features I might use a handful of times a month.
Perhaps the only potential saving grace with smartphone AI is that it seems unlikely that manufacturers will place on-device AI features behind a paywall. After all, cloud-related costs are often cited as a reason for AI subscriptions, but local AI features don’t use the cloud. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if some unscrupulous brands put on-device AI features behind a paywall. We’ve also seen the Google Pixel 9 series offer 8K video recording as a cloud feature as opposed to a local capability as seen on virtually every other flagship phone. Maybe I’m just cynical, but who’s to say Google wouldn’t put 8K video or better low-light video behind an AI subscription or a similar plan in the future?
That’s not to say that I think generative AI is worthless. Features like call summaries, Audio Magic Eraser, and call screening are very cool and practical. But these killer apps seem few and far between. Taken together with my disdain for subscriptions, you can’t convince me to pay for Galaxy AI, Apple Intelligence, or Gemini Advanced each month. How about you?
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