Google promoted its Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro handsets as “the first AI smartphones.” The tricky second album will be the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro, and recent details discovered in Google’s code reveal new AI tools focused both on performance and privacy.
Crucially, the Pixel 9’s implementation of many modern AI tools will be processed on the Pixel smartphone itself. This includes text-to-image, text composition, editing, and AI-based queries and discussions.
Details on the processing location come from @AssembleDebug, who has taken a closer look at the AI Core component of Android referenced by Google’s Messages beta. They find calls to AI-based routines for OCR, TEXT_TO_IMAGE and QUESTION_TO_ANSWER.
AI, especially generative AI, requires significant processing power. Older phones rely on cloud-based services but require sending user data into the cloud. The current generation of AI-focused smartphones split the feature set, with some work done in the cloud and some on the devices. The latter means sending personal data, such as video, into the cloud, which has raised concerns about personal data, hence the push towards on-device AI.
The recent chipsets from Qualcomm, Snapdragon, and Mediatek include hardware dedicated to AI routines, helping the wider Android ecosystem. Google has taken similar steps with its Tensor Mobile chipsets for the Pixel 6, Pixel 7, and Pixel 8 families. That will continue with the Pixel 9; expect the next-generation chipset to deliver more performance to increase the number of AI services that can run locally.
Currently, the AI Core component is present in just two lines of devices: Google’s Pixel 8 family and Samsung’s Galaxy S24 family. Google is working on bringing many of its Gemini AI modules to the smartphone market, including the upcoming Pixel 9, and will likely make them available to partners—Bloomberg cites people familiar with the matter on Apple’s consideration of Gemini Nano for the iPhone 16 family.
Yet Google could give the new AI features a period of exclusivity on Pixel devices before they become available to its partners. If it follows a similar pattern to previous years, we can expect the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro to be announced in early October 2025.
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