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A.I. Could Make the Smartphone Passé. What Comes Next?
As Apple prepares to release new iPhones this week, industry veterans shared their predictions for what will be the next big thing in personal computing.
Brian X. Chen and Tripp Mickle
Reporting from San Francisco
To consumers, this week will feel familiar: Apple is expected to unveil new iPhones with modest improvements, including a slightly thinner one. Yet many of the world’s biggest tech companies believe that a radical shift is underway, and that it could one day make the smartphone, as we know it, passé.
Modern artificially intelligent assistants, which are far more capable and flexible than clunky voice helpers like Siri, are poised to become the central operating system of all our personal computing devices, superseding smartphone software in importance, experts say.
Apps and their polished interfaces won’t matter much when A.I. assistants use devices on our behalf, automatically carrying out tasks like making plans with friends, generating shopping lists and taking notes in meetings. That would spare us the need to swipe through software menus and type on keyboards.
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Brian X. Chen is the lead consumer technology writer for The Times. He reviews products and writes Tech Fix, a column about the social implications of the tech we use.
Tripp Mickle reports on Apple and Silicon Valley for The Times and is based in San Francisco. His focus on Apple includes product launches, manufacturing issues and political challenges. He also writes about trends across the tech industry, including layoffs, generative A.I. and robot taxis.
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