Hybrid AI is the way ahead to make artificial intelligence more practical on smartphones: Samsung’s Won-Joon Choi

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in smartphones raises many questions across industries that current generative AI tools won't have an answer for. Of course, there's the talk around personal data privacy but more importantly how mobile phone makers should approach AI while integrating ChatGPT-like services on handsets? The reliability, speed and practicality of generative AI tools on smartphones depend a lot on the hardware prowess.

While on-device AI seems ideal, it may not be economically viable for all smartphone brands to deliver useful AI tools in mobile phones across all price points, specially in budget and mid-level categories. At the same time, not everyone would be willing to increase their smartphone buying budgets every year to get a powerful flagship smartphone. Now, the dilemma– how to offer useful AI services on affordable smartphones- a segment which constitutes the largest set of mobile buyers, in countries like India?

Samsung has a clear answer– “Hybrid AI”. Not just for its flagship Galaxy S or foldable Galaxy Z series, Samsung is also looking at bringing its Galaxy AI services to devices in the budget-friendly Galaxy A series smartphones as well. To offer a seamless experience- some part of AI processing happens locally on the user's device while certain complex functions require the user's smartphone to be connected to the internet so that it happens over cloud. For Samsung, forming a clear “case-by-case” policy as to what happens on-device and what data processing happens on the cloud is the priority.

“Our users are now experiencing the tangible benefits of Galaxy AI, innovated to provide an entirely human-centric mobile AI experience – and that was just the beginning. Within months, we have democratised Galaxy AI, extending access to more models and form factors. It's a feat only possible through close collaboration with our industry partners and our distinct approach to hybrid AI to bring our users the most practical, reliable and versatile mobile