SAMSUNG fans may have to pay for the privilege of using the tech giant’s fancy new AI features.
The South Korean firm recently revealed mega AI-powered tools for the Galaxy S24 series, such as enhanced photo editing and the ability to translate a live phone call.
They’ll roll out to some older devices this year, including the Galaxy S23.
But the company has warned users that it may charge people to access them at some point in the future.
For now, Samsung has committed to keeping its AI features free until at least the end of 2025.
However, bosses are still mulling over whether to charge people for them after that.
Speaking to The Sun, Samsung’s vice president, head of MX Division, teased that more AI features will probably come in future.
But it’s not clear how much such a plan will cost users.
Analysis by Jamie Harris, Senior Technology and Science Reporter at The Sun
Everyone fears AI may eventually take their jobs but at the moment the technology is expensive to develop and maintain.
Clearly Samsung is testing the waters to see how people react to its “era of AI” features and the prospect of paying for them.
And it wouldn’t be the first to do that.
Last year, Apple extended its Emergency SOS via satellite tool for iPhone giving users an extra year for free. It too hasn’t divulged how much users will have to pay if they want to keep the life-saving feature at the end of the year.
Remember, Samsung is still deciding on what to do and if it does charge it’ll only be for the AI features, you’ll still get free Android software upgrades for the essential stuff like you normally would. At its recent Galaxy event the firm said it will now offer seven years of security updates and seven generations of OS upgrades.
Part of the reason the smartphone maker is considering a charge is because of the amount of investment and research it has made into AI, James Kitto said.
It’s already been reported that Google and ChatGPT‘s AI capabilities could cost a bomb because it requires more computing power and therefore more electricity.
Kitto explained that Samsung’s commitment of free AI tools until the end of 2025 doesn’t mean that they’ll start charging on January 1, 2026.
“It’ll be the consumers choice, of course, you know, it’ll be very clearly presented to customers,” he told The Sun.
“It won’t be forced on anybody and those options will be made available at that point in time, so if you want to use those features or certain features there may be a charge.”
He continued: “I’m very confident of course, what we’re doing here is bringing great hardware and amazing AI software.
“That software will get richer and improve over time of course, as AI and the core adoption of AI and just the technological improvements in AI happens at real pace in this new era of AI powered phones.
“I’m sure more features will come in the future and so we just thought we would be really open and honest to our customers, and say, look, right now everything you’re getting we’re not going to charge you for at least until the end of 2025.”
The next big Samsung upgrade is expected sometime in the first half of 2024 on the following models:
