Samsung is working on a new AI experience for its devices that will help you use your phone without ever accessing the Settings menu.
According to ET News, the company plans to implement an AI feature on its devices “that can predict what consumers want in advance by improving the performance of ‘touch points’ such as keyboard and camera.”
Every one of the ‘features’ results in the exact opposite of what I want the thing to do. I have become a grumpy old man yelling “Stop fucking helping!” at hardware and software that tries to be ‘intuitive’.
Samsung devices already let you change various settings without opening the Settings menu using Bixby. However, this implementation requires users to trigger Bixby and issue a voice command. In contrast, the AI-powered solution could automatically change settings based on usage patterns.
I want it to be consistent dammit!
I fully hear you and agree.
Every 5 days there’s a software update, for something that just changes one or two things slightly - but rarely if ever is it an improvement.
Oh, you want to do this simple thing you were able to easily do 3 days ago?
Now you have to change 4 nondescript settings, use 3 separate hotkey commands, watch a YouTube video, and troubleshoot for hours to get a once basic function to preform correctly.
I’d bet that the AI system will be used exclusively to identify + paywall things you’ll want/need to use your phone.
seems like you want volume control, based on your history you want 1% volume. Subscribe to" basic functions" package to unlock a volume option. Upgrade to “basic functions premium” for up to 5 volume adjustments a week!
Still not enough AI control? The “basic functions unlimited” fully unlocks both volume buttons and for a limited time unlocks the spacebar for 5 minutes an hour from midnight to 6am!
Most of the software updates you see are a result of CI/CD processes. The industry claims it makes good design patterns to get features our faster and more reliably. In reality it is just a rushed shitstorm that results in half-assed Friday releases that aren’t fixed until the following week.
I’ve long turned off auto update of my apps. Too many times I’m on a trip or other scenario where my tool is meant to be a tool and not some tech bro’s rented wet dream, and the tool is broken.
But here’s the kicker. CI/CD exists for another reasons or so:
- Frequent updates tend to reset review rankings in app stores. Not only does it offer plausible deniability to the app company, but it also screws with the review scores in their favor, as well as other rankings.
- Great way to help nudge along planned obsolescence. All that pointless rewriting of flash storage on a daily basis.
- Psychological manipulation, it gets notifications in your face to try and increase app engagement, which ensures it is fresh and running gathering user telemetry to sell as a side-hustle, as well as direct-interaction telemetry and getting more ads in your face.
It’d be better if we all just went back to landline phones some days. Modern tech is too noisy, abusive, and intrusive.
CI/CD processes.
What does this stand for, and what are these (in layman’s terms anyway, not expecting a deep dive)?
Continous integration/ Continous delivery basically they keep pushing the latest developments as soon as it’s avaliable and passes the tests.
You guys do tests (meme, I’m just too lazy to make)
My favorite podcast app, Overcast, recently had a huge overhaul and it went from working perfectly to being utter broken garbage for a couple months.
They definitely didn’t do tests. I think they just rushed it out to meet some deadline.
It’s usable now, but it was really gnar for a while.
Old software - Do an annual release but make that release as bug-free as possible
New software using CI/CD - Push software updates as fast as possible to show high productivity. Bugs? We will get them in the “next” update.
User, I noticed you weren’t sharing telemetry data, location data,and all your photos with Samsung. I corrected that for you and locked the settings…you’re welcome.
I totally agree with you.
However there is one smart feature Samsung has that I like. The screen brightness auto adjusts based on the ambient light, but if I change that automatic brightness (I prefer the screen darker) it will remember that and consistently adjust the brightness.
I’m not sure it’s really an AI feature…
Take the ambient light level (lux).
Set brightness to 5.
Log that the user has made it 1 level or 10% darker.
Next time it senses the same lux level, set the brightness 1 level lowerThat’s just an Android feature. And not at all something that requires a neural network.
Well shucks, I guess Samsung lied to me! I see adaptive brightness was released as part of Android Pie in 2018.
Yeah, I was thinking it could be machine learning in that it takes the average of all your changes over time and the different ambient light levels.
But deffo no need for neural networks.
Nope, I’ll bet it is like five IF statements and the best part is that it is consistent!
So I was trying to think how I’d implement it, and I agree if it’s simple then it really only needs to set the brightness level once, then remember if the user adjusts it, and reuse that adjustment for every lux reading.
Hence the example I gave:
Take the ambient light level (lux).
Set brightness to 5.
Log that the user has made it 1 level or 10% darker.
Next time it senses the same lux level, set the brightness 1 level lower
That is just a simple algorithm that uses .000001% processing power. I’m sure they will turn it into an AL feature that takes 2% power and is always slightly off of what I want it to be.
Yeah, no thanks.
Fuck you, I’m not wading through your fuckass prompts when I could toggle one simple switch.
Imagine how easy it will be for them to hide default settings no one would even know existed.
But how would you know if you like the new image carousel if we don’t force it up in your face?
clickbait article title alert.
They never state they are wanting to remove the settings window, just that they seem to be working on an AI that can suggest changes to the phone based off your usage. honestly if it worked it might help, it already does a pretty “ok” job at noticing what apps need to be deep seeped or removing perms from apps that I don’t use and removing apps that I haven’t used in ages.
I would be against removing the settings menu but, this AI might not be that bad if it’s just being subsidized alongside it and not replacing it. As long as it offers and just doesn’t automatically change it
They need to focus on letting snapdragon variants have unlocked bootloaders. Cause as far as Im concerned the S23U is my last Samsung.
That and they really need to bring back the micro SD card slot, I’m still on an s20 plus myself and as far as I can see this will be my last Samsung due to it
I really did think I’d need that slot coming from my note10+ but I haven’t filled up my 512gb internal. However…removing features isn’t progress and I’m not typing this to justify it’s removal.
Remember when we used to have IR blasters on phones.
I have a 256 Gig micro SD card filled to the brim, and I’m slowly chipping away at my 128gb internal.
But even if I upgraded my internal, I’m not comfortable with not having some form of removable storage device. Those photos mean jack shit to me if my phone breaks itself and I can no longer turn it on. Currently I do synchronize it with my server at my house because I am slowly prepping myself for when I have to take the plunge, but it’s not optimal, I plan on jumping off Samsung to another brand that does, but none of the flagships out there even do it anymore
Also yes I fully missed the IR blasters, not that most TV is I think was function with it anyway because so many smart capabilities but it was nice
Thank you
Settings…developer mode? Unknown sources? Well why on earth would you ever want that? You don’t need that…
Fuck samsung
Gross, awful, terrible. Buuuuuut…
Hard to swallow pill: This will probably get tweaked and eventually be very successful. Most people do not like or know how to mess with settings on their phones. You, on this website, are probably an exception but deep inside you know that. How many friends and family members have you had to explain how to change something on their phones? How many have you noticed that NEED to change something on their phones but didn’t even know it, much less think to ask? Now think of all the people whose phones you’ve never even seen.
Of course I’d love to see it go the way of touchscreens in cars where consumers reject it, but I just don’t see it. Assuming they can get it to where it does the 5 or 10 tasks the average user would want to do, this will probably be the new norm moving foward. Don’t believe me? Look at modern macs or windows and how many settings they hide.
God please kill me.
They will burry everything useful behind their AI game wardens whose job it is to force us to use the phone only in the way they want and not in a useful way.
That’s a good way to make people stop buying your phones.
“Oh cool what are they thinking of?”
Samsung is working on a new AI experience
Fuck…
I was thinking that every app would have deeper settings embedded (which seems worse) but I guess the idea here is to bake settings into the OS so only AI can access them. Would this allow for a lot more settings or a lot more nuanced settings?
Gut reaction to AI in 2024 is very bad but I guess a part of me is still curious what they are thinking of doing here.
This is also interesting because like it or not these companies already have a ton of knowledge about you and how you use your device and this may be a way for that data to be served to us in a useful way. I’d prefer they didn’t have the data in the first place.
Frustratingly, every second they save us is counterbalanced by a 30 second ad or some other negative. I’m planning for a potential future where I might be using a dumb phone to avoid what they’re putting together.
I too am curious, morbidly so.
Just a big json file? I’m down
Naw, they’ll make it yaml
And the only way to edit it will be in an on-phone editor that won’t use a mono spaced font.
deleted by creator
rented
The rest of us want future articles to have none of whatever wanker came up with that clickbait-ass headline.
What is the best Android phone manufacturer after we count out Samsung?
Google?
Yes, obviously, I could Google this, but I’m looking for real peoples’ opinions. I’ve owned OnePlus and LG android phones previously to my current Samsung. I loved my OnePlus phones, but my current provider doesn’t support them.
Edit: LOL. I just realized you were suggesting Google as an android phone manufacturer.
Depends what you mean be best. I choose FairPhone
Motorola (technically owned by Lenovo now, but even some of the Lenovo phones are great).
