Majority of Smartphone Users are Unimpressed With AI Features, Study Finds

Smartphone users are not impressed with the latest artificial intelligence features on their devices with 73 percent of Apple users and 87 percent of Samsung users unsatisfied, according to a new study.

SellCell quizzed 2,000 smartphone users in the U.S. and found that both Apple and Samsung users don’t think AI features add worth. 64.7 percent of iPhone users think Apple Intelligence is “not very valuable” while 51.9 percent of Samsung Galaxy users said that AI features add “little to no value”.

The poll covered 1,000 iPhone users who own models built for Apple Intelligence; the newest iPhone 16 series and the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Less than half, 41.6 percent, said they haven’t even bothered to try the latest AI features.

9to5Mac points out that the SellCell’s study was carried out before the release of iOS 18.2 which has a host of new AI features including Image Playground, an AI image generator made by Apple.

But Futurism notes that Image Playground is not getting good ratings on the App Store with an overwhelming amount of one-star reviews.

And last week the BBC put a complaint into Apple after its new AI feature generated a false headline stating that Luigi Mangione, the man charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York, had shot himself.

“I can see the pressure getting to the market first, but I am surprised that Apple put their name on such demonstrably half-baked product,” Petros Iosifidis, a professor in media policy at City University in London, tells the BBC. “Yes, potential advantages are there — but the technology is not there yet and there is a real danger of spreading disinformation.”

It’s an inauspicious start to Apple Intelligence and iOS 18 with the latter already having faced criticism over its newly-designed Photos app.

In September when Apple revealed its AI features, the company said the new iPhone 16 had been built “from the ground up” to understand language and images.

Apple also introduced an AI-powered Clean Up photo tool for iOS 18. The company’s senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi says there was “very very high” demand for an editing tool that removes “extraneous details” that doesn’t “fundamentally change the meaning” of the image.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.