Apparently, my phone is now an AI phone.
Cool.
But what exactly changed?
Because I still unlock it, scroll through Instagram, reply to WhatsApp, take photos, check Google Maps and somehow end up watching random videos at 1AM.
None of that feels particularly futuristic.
Yet almost every new smartphone launch now talks about AI like we just entered a new era.
AI camera. AI assistant. AI writing. AI search. AI battery optimisation. AI translation.
At this point, I'm waiting for AI Calculator to tell me RM18.90 + RM24.50 with emotional support.
The funny thing is, AI has actually been inside our phones for years.
Your camera already uses machine learning to figure out whether you're taking a photo of a person, food, a sunset or your cat doing absolutely nothing.
Your phone knows which apps you normally open at certain times.
It removes background noise during calls.
It predicts the next word you're probably going to type.
Face unlock? Also machine learning.
What's different now is that AI has moved from something happening quietly in the background to something manufacturers actually want us to notice.
And sell.
Now you can circle something on your screen and search for it.
Remove random people from photos.
Summarise long notes.
Rewrite messages.
Translate conversations.
Generate images.
Ask your phone what is inside a picture.
Some of these features are genuinely useful.
Removing that one guy walking behind you at exactly the wrong moment in a holiday photo? Amazing.
Summarising a 47-message group chat after disappearing for three hours? Also useful.
But there is another category of AI feature that feels like:
“Look, we added AI because everyone else added AI.”
And that is where things get slightly weird.
Because once your phone starts becoming an AI assistant rather than just a device, it needs more context.
Your messages.
Photos.
Calendar.
Location.
Contacts.
Documents.
Maybe even information from multiple apps at the same time.
The more it knows, the more useful it becomes.
But also... the more it knows.
That trade-off is going to matter a lot more over the next few years.
I wrote about the deeper security side of this over at jaizanuar.com in The Real Risk of AI Coding Agents Is Not Intelligence. It Is Permission.
Different technology, same basic question:
What are we allowing AI to access?
For now though, most smartphone AI still feels like a collection of really clever features rather than the massive revolution the advertising makes it sound like.
Useful? Definitely.
Life-changing?
Hmm.
Ask me again when my phone can automatically find that screenshot I took six months ago, remember why I took it, book the thing I was researching and somehow stop me from buying another USB-C cable when I already have twelve.
Then I'll be impressed.
Until then, enjoy your AI phone.
Even if you're mostly using it to scroll TikTok.