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Aren’t these “new” AI features impractical? — A data scientist’s rant.
When Technology’s Hype Outpaces Its Practicality.
Google’s new AI features came out recently. Since then, my Twitter feed, newsletters and YouTube recommendations are all filled with the new AI features and how they are the “best”. I couldn’t help but feel irritated seeing these things pop up again. Even now, some people are debating the quality of Gemini’s new features and Apple Intelligence when neither of these services has been released yet. Don’t get me wrong; I was the most excited when GPT-3.5, GPT-4, DALL·E 3, and MidJourney V6, etc, were released. However, things trending in AI right now feel somehow artificially hyped up. They are not as interesting as they make it to be.
Many recent advancements in these services, like image understanding, live speech, etc, are deeply appreciated by technical and day-to-day users. The proofreading option in Apple Notes, the “What’s on my screen” from both Apple and Pixel phones, and call notes are impressive and are products of hard work from a technical viewpoint. While not everyone uses these features daily, they are valuable for niche groups, such as writers refining their work or sales teams enhancing their feedback processes. They remove a few steps in searching from services like Claude/ChatGPT.
But why do I need image generation integration in my photos app? The ‘Magic Eraser’ feature makes sense because it makes the photos more personal. So does moving people around after taking an image. But why would I want a random moment of my life in 8k? Especially when most of my displays are limited to at most 4k? Even the phone selling this has no use for 8k except for upselling cloud storage. Generating Emojis has some meaning; we use emojis a lot in our day-to-day lives.
In the end, how often do you open up ChatGPT daily? How many phone calls do you want to take note of? How many images do you generate daily? How many times do you zoom in on an image? The calculator is an interesting change, though I’m not sure how often people would use the “math notes” on it…
