In case you consider Google’s advertising and marketing hype, AI in a telephone is de facto, actually necessary, the perfect AI is Google’s, and the perfect 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 appear 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 staff, stated “[Gemini] Nano won’t be coming to the Pixel 8 due to some {hardware} limitations. It is at present 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 gadgets 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 couple of totally different sizes, and the smallest “Nano” measurement 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 this stuff play good collectively?
Including to the weirdness is that Gemini Nano can run on the Pixel 8 Professional however not the smaller Pixel 8 on account 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 measurement (6.7 inches versus 6.2), battery measurement, a unique digital camera loadout, and 8GB of RAM versus 12GB. RAM is the one recognized distinction you may level to that would 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 problem 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 totally 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 totally 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 carry 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 perfect Android expertise, first-of-its-kind digital camera experiences, and the most recent AI developments from Google.” Each gadgets characteristic the customized Google Tensor 3 SoC that Google claimed was “designed particularly to carry Google’s AI breakthroughs on to Pixel customers and present the world what’s doable.” This tradition Google AI-focused design was alleged to ship “unbelievably useful experiences that no different telephone can.”
If you launch two telephones without delay, it is all the time arduous to differentiate what the precise variations between the 2 fashions are. Generally, the gadgets get talked about within the plural, whereas different occasions “Pixel 8” is used to symbolize each gadgets. Generally, the costlier gadget is singularly talked about for no motive apart 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 reasonably 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 examine 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. Right this moment, although, re-watching the launch presentation with the brand new information 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 might 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 must know what the heck “Gemini Nano” truly does and why you need to care about it. That is a tough query to reply. Google has a web page up right here detailing among the options Gemini Nano powers on the Pixel 8 Professional, however a characteristic may be powered by totally different fashions on totally different gadgets. For what it is value, the rundown lists a “summarize” characteristic for the Google Recorder app and “sensible reply” in Gboard. Loads of Google apps have already got a “sensible reply” characteristic with out Gemini Nano. Third-party builders may 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 gadget assist.
The opposite possibility is to simply overlook about doing all of this AI stuff on-device and simply do it within the cloud. As an ideal 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 this may 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 on account of “{hardware} limitations” after 5 months is a disappointment.