We’ve all seen it and there’s a good chance we’ve all done it too, where we’ve gone out with friends and instead of talking to them, we spend our time on our smartphones, taking photos and sharing them on social media, replying to likes and comments, and so on, which kind of defeats the point of going out with friends in the first place.
However Android’s creator and Essential’s Andy Rubin believes that the use of AI in the future could help curb smartphone addiction. In an interview with Bloomberg, Rubin was quoted as saying, “We all lived happy lives before we had always-on internet.” He also talks about the Essential smartphone and it being the first step of his plan, in which future Essential smartphones could run more powerful and complex algorithms and AI to help automate a lot of tasks that will help kick our addiction.
According to Rubin, “If I can get to the point where your phone is a virtual version of you, you can be off enjoying your life, having that dinner, without touching your phone, and you can trust your phone to do things on your behalf. I think I can solve part of the addictive behavior.” It is a rather interesting idea and approach, although we should note that the smartphone market is extremely competitive and not necessarily kind to newcomers.
We’ve seen quite a few smartphones that promised to change the way we use our devices, but none have really stuck, so whether or not Essential will be able to succeed where others have failed remains to be seen. In the meantime those who are interested can pre-order the handset from Sprint, Best Buy, and Essential.
Filed in . Read more about AI (Artificial Intelligence), Android and Essential.