Galaxy AI is here, as Samsung announced it in the loudest possible way, but the company left out one small detail in its demo earlier this week: It might come at a price. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, S24 Plus and S24 all include a host of new artificial intelligence features – from translating phone conversations to removing objects from photos.they may even come many Same goes for old phones.But as discovered Android Center, The fine print on Samsung’s website says they may not be free forever. This can be a tough sell.
The footnote at the bottom of the Galaxy S24 Ultra product page is vague, but apparently leaves room for Samsung to charge later: “Galaxy AI features will be available for free on supported Samsung Galaxy devices through the end of 2025. Artificial Intelligence features provided by third parties Different terms may apply.”
Samsung also didn’t provide much clarification.Drew Blackard, vice president of Samsung’s U.S. mobile business said edge”, “We are committed to making Galaxy AI features available to as many users as possible. We will not consider any changes to this direction before the end of 2025. ” It’s clear now, but many of the S24’s Galaxy AI features are enabled by Google Cloud, so either company — or both! — may end up putting their features behind a paywall.
It is not also It’s surprising when you consider how expensive it is to provide these capabilities and run the large AI models that power them. business insider pointed out that manufacturers may look to subscription models to cover these ongoing costs, because you can’t fully offset these costs through advertising like Google search. But it’s a bit of a shift in how we think about buying phones – currently, they don’t charge extra on top of the purchase price, unless you choose to add a protection plan or additional cloud storage via iCloud or Google, for example.
But “How much does this phone cost?” That’s an extremely difficult question to answer in the age of “free” or heavily subsidized phones by carriers, which is how many Americans get their devices. It’s not hard to imagine a future where monthly fees for advanced AI capabilities are rolled into your wireless bill or rolled into a paid cloud subscription.
So why wait until 2025? this korea herald reported some comments from Samsung’s mobile business chief TM Roh, who said charging for AI services may become an option as they become more advanced and more expensive to run. That’s the thing about artificial intelligence; so far, the way it’s shown up on our phones hasn’t been impressive. These features can take a lot of time to process, but more importantly, they aren’t very useful. If Samsung does want to charge for AI options in the future, the door appears to be open — they’ll just have to prove it’s worth the money.
