Google recently launched Gemini, its new AI model, with the ambition to dethrone GPT-4, but a recent announcement frustrated many Pixel 8 owners. Indeed, during a question-and-answer session in the part of the Android Show on YouTube, a Google engineer said that Gemini Nano would not be available on the Pixel 8 “due to some hardware limitations”. An announcement that disappointed many users. And for good reason, the Pixel 8 has almost the same characteristics as its Pro version which already benefits from the functionalities of Gemini Nano. Operating locally, they are used in particular within the framework of the Audio Recorder application.
Pixel 8 owners therefore find themselves deprived of access to this new feature, a decision by Google which raises questions about the future of AI on its smartphones, particularly in terms of fairness among users. The Mountain View firm, however, assured that it was currently deploying efforts to extend AI to other high-end devices, offering hope for future generations of Pixel family smartphones.
The performance difference between the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, primarily due to the amount of available RAM, has been highlighted as a potential cause for the Pixel 8’s exclusion from Gemini Nano support. While the Pixel 8 comes with 8GB of RAM, the Pixel 8 Pro offers 12GB of RAM, which could influence its ability to run advanced AI features. However, this explanation has not satisfied all users, with some questioning the relevance of these hardware limitations, and fearing that the integration of AI on smartphones is not only a question of technical capabilities, but also of product strategy and business priorities.
We can only hope that the Pixel 9 series does not suffer similar segmentation, with Google talking about the future integration of Gemini Nano into more high-end smartphones.