If you happen to consider Google’s advertising and marketing hype, AI in a telephone is actually, actually vital, the most effective AI is Google’s, and the most effective place to get that AI is Google’s flagship smartphone, the Pixel 8. We’re 5 months faraway from the launch of the Pixel 8, and that does not seem to be a justifiable place anymore: Google says its newest AI fashions cannot run on the Pixel 8.
Google dropped that information in a Cellular World Congress wrap-up video that was noticed by Mishaal Rahman. On the finish of the present in a Q&A session, Googler Terence Zhang, a member of the Gemini-on-Android workforce, mentioned “[Gemini] Nano won’t be coming to the Pixel 8 due to some {hardware} limitations. It is at the moment on the Pixel 8 Professional and really not too long ago accessible on the Samsung S24 household. It’s going to be coming to extra high-end units within the close to future.”
That may be a wild assertion. Gemini is Google’s newest AI mannequin, and it made a giant deal of the launch final month. Gemini is available in a number of completely different sizes, and the smallest “Nano” dimension is particularly designed to run on smartphones as a much-hyped “on-device AI.” The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Professional are Google’s flagship smartphones. Google designed the telephone and the chip and the AI mannequin and in some way cannot make these items play good collectively?
Including to the weirdness is that Gemini Nano can run on the Pixel 8 Professional however not the smaller Pixel 8 as a result of “{hardware} limitations.” What limitations would these be, precisely? The 2 telephones have the very same Google Tensor SoC. They run the identical software program. The primary variations between the 2 telephones are display screen dimension (6.7 inches versus 6.2), battery dimension, a special digicam loadout, and 8GB of RAM versus 12GB. RAM is the one recognized distinction you may level to that might create a processing limitation, however Gemini Nano additionally runs on the Galaxy S24 collection, the place the bottom mannequin has 8GB of RAM. RAM being the difficulty would imply Samsung telephones are in some way extra RAM environment friendly than Pixel telephones, which is tough to consider. If the Pixel 8 Professional Tensor 3 and Pixel 8 Tensor 3 are completely different in some way, that is not on the spec sheet.
5 months in the past on the Pixel 8 launch occasion, Google painted a really completely different image of the Pixel 8 collection: “I am excited to introduce you to the following evolution of AI in your hand, Google Pixel 8 Professional and Google Pixel 8. Our newest telephones deliver collectively so many applied sciences from throughout Google. They’re the primary telephones to make use of our newest Google Tensor chip. They embody the easiest Android expertise, first-of-its-kind digicam experiences, and the newest AI developments from Google.” Each units function the customized Google Tensor 3 SoC that Google claimed was “designed particularly to deliver Google’s AI breakthroughs on to Pixel customers and present the world what’s doable.” This practice Google AI-focused design was presupposed to ship “unbelievably useful experiences that no different telephone can.”
Whenever you launch two telephones without delay, it is at all times arduous to differentiate what the precise variations between the 2 fashions are. Typically, the units get talked about within the plural, whereas different instances “Pixel 8” is used to characterize each units. Typically, the costlier system is singularly talked about for no motive aside from it is the costlier flagship. Between the hour-long presentation and personal press pre-briefing that Ars was part of, “What is the distinction” turned a fairly well-worn query that was anticipated to be answered clearly. Often, the go-to delineator right here is the spec sheet, which is anticipated to spell out in clear language what you are truly shopping for. The Google Retailer has a evaluate web page the place you may instantly pit the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Professional in opposition to one another, and nothing spells out a distinction in AI processing capabilities or a distinction within the Tensor chips.
Within the case of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Professional, Google wasn’t clear sufficient in its communication at launch. At this time, although, re-watching the launch presentation with the brand new data that there is some dramatic distinction in AI processing capabilities, you may choose up some language like speak of the “Pixel 8 Professional’s on-device LLM” that you would now interpret as a declaration of unique AI capabilities for the Professional mannequin, however that wasn’t clear on the time.
As a client, it is arduous to not really feel misled, and it is embarrassing for Google, however to virtually care about this, you’d have to know what the heck “Gemini Nano” truly does and why you must care about it. That is a tough query to reply. Google has a web page up right here detailing a few of the options Gemini Nano powers on the Pixel 8 Professional, however a function may be powered by completely different fashions on completely different units. For what it is price, the rundown lists a “summarize” function for the Google Recorder app and “good reply” in Gboard. Loads of Google apps have already got a “good reply” function with out Gemini Nano. Third-party builders also can plug into the onboard Gemini Nano mannequin for his or her apps, nevertheless it’s arduous to think about anybody doing that with such restricted system assist.
The opposite possibility is to simply neglect about doing all of this AI stuff on-device and simply do it within the cloud. As an excellent instance of this, none of this Gemini Nano stuff has something to do with the Google Gemini Chatbot, which all runs within the cloud. A giant query is what it will imply for the smaller Google Pixel 8 going ahead. Google promised seven years of OS updates for the brand new Pixels, and to already be stripping down options as a result of “{hardware} limitations” after 5 months is a disappointment.