Your old Galaxy phone already has AI, just not Galaxy AI

Although, so far, the Galaxy S24 series is the only one to have access to Samsung’s latest Galaxy AI features, AI (Artificial Intelligence) has been around for years. And chances are that your old Galaxy phone, even a mid-range one, has been harnessing the power of ML (Machine Learning) and AI all this time — just not Galaxy AI.

What do we mean by this? Well, Samsung doesn’t actually refer to Galaxy AI as “Artificial Intelligence” but “Advanced Intelligence.” It sounds arbitrary, and it is tempting to label this as just a marketing ploy than anything else, but there might be a bigger reason behind Samsung’s naming scheme.

You see, Samsung already heavily advertised artificial intelligence for its phones years ago. Check out this old Galaxy A52 and A72 video showcasing “AI Power Saving,” among other things.

You might be starting to see why Samsung might want to distinguish between AI and Galaxy AI. The key difference is that the old AI or ML (Machine Learning) systems worked exclusively in the background to automate things based on the user’s behavior.

You had, and still have, things like AI Power Saving, a.k.a. Adaptive power saving, Bixby, and Modes & Routines that use AI/ML tricks to learn from your usage patterns.

Galaxy AI, on the other hand, doesn’t care about your usage patterns but is all about harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and large language models to deliver new features that Galaxy phone users can interact with directly: Things like Generative Edit for the Gallery app, Generative Wallpapers, Live Translate for phone calls, Chat Assist, and more.

All in all, it could be why Samsung stuck the “Galaxy” brand before “AI” and why it uses the term “Advanced Intelligence” while avoiding calling it “Galaxy Advanced Intelligence.” Perhaps it’s not because AI has a shaky reputation but to tell customers that this new Galaxy AI is vastly different than the original AI systems. Samsung already advertised AI in the past for older phones, and when the time came for the Galaxy S24 to hit the scene, it probably didn’t want to come across like it was beating a dead horse when it actually had something new to show off.

So, is it all just marketing in the end? It almost always is, but at least this time, Samsung’s strategy appears to make a little bit more sense from a practical point of view. It’s not just all flash and no substance. Galaxy AI technically is new, and it makes sense for Samsung to want to let users know that it is unlike any AI system that came before.