Opinion
Commentary: Generative AI isn’t worth your money yet
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Tech companies continue to roll out new generative AI apps and services. Microsoft (MSFT) has its Copilot for Windows; Apple (AAPL) has Apple Intelligence for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac; Google (GOOG, GOOGL) has Gemini for its apps and Pixel phones; and Meta (META) has Meta AI for its various social media services. But despite all of the hype, I’m still not sold on these apps. At least not yet.
I’ve been using each company’s products for a while now, and while they’ve got some intriguing capabilities, none of them has the kind of features that make me want them to be a part of my daily life. The problem, at least so far, is that much of what these companies have to offer are solutions for niche situations or kitschy demos for what’s to come down the line.
Whether that’s manipulating photos to completely alter their settings, changing an artificial intelligence app’s voice to a celebrity’s voice, or creating generative AI-based emojis, I haven’t come across a single generative AI feature that would convince me to spend $800 on a new phone or PC or make me want to change how I use apps. But there’s potential on the horizon.
Limited uses for most users
If you’re an Android user, you’ve likely at least tried some of the company’s generative AI capabilities via Google’s Pixel phones or Samsung’s Galaxy line of devices. There’s the ability to edit photos to do things like make your 4-year-old appear as though she’s dunking a basketball on a regulation-height hoop or that your dog is driving your car. You can also reimagine your photos to, say, transform a road into a rushing river, or even add objects to them that weren’t there before.
Apple also offers photo editing capabilities with its first wave of Apple Intelligence features, though it’s far tamer than Google’s, only allowing you to remove objects from the background of your photos like a person walking behind your subject in a shot or a cup off of a table.
Meta AI can pull off the same tricks as Google, letting you do things like remove large objects from images or transform the floor in a photo into lava. It’s all a bit of fun to use at first, but unless you’re spending a lot of time posting the perfect shot to Instagram every day, there’s little reason to regularly use these apps. Is that worth buying a new $799 iPhone or $999 for a Surface laptop or changing your routine to use a new piece of software? Not really.
Tech companies are also offering features that can summarize large chunks of text, rewrite emails to make them more professional or more casual, and prepare bullet points to help quickly digest the most important parts of a report. These can be helpful if you’re trying to plow through a massive document, but it’s hard to imagine most people taking advantage of such an option in their daily lives.