Owners of older Pixels still see AI as a waste of money

You can try to run from it or hide from it, but daily mentions of AI from companies or people in your life are inevitable. If you own a Google Pixel, you’ll certainly be well aware of this.

Google is continuously rolling out new AI features that require peppier TPUs and chipsets designed for crunching all that data offline. This leaves older Pixel phones, those that are still well supported through software updates or remain quick on their feet in the hardware sense, out in the cold when it comes to new AI smarts.

However, what if Google offered up its latest and greatest AI features to older Pixel owners? Would our readers consider paying for the privilege?

We recently conducted a poll asking our readers, “Would you ever pay for AI on your older Pixel?” After receiving more than 2,000 votes, it’s clear that owners of these legacy Pixels don’t care about the newer features Google is pushing.

In fact, more than 4 in every 5 respondents (82.5%) believe that paying for AI features on an older Pixel is “a waste of money.”

“Yeah, AI isn’t anything I am even remotely interested in using, much less paying for,” said commenter ronaldlbailey.

Not everyone feels this way, though. Just over 10% of respondents said they’d “just buy the new phone” to access the new features on offer. Only 6.8% would subscribe to such a plan if it meant that they could keep their existing Pixel longer.

As a Pixel 8 owner, I certainly don’t feel the pull of the new phones, especially since I wouldn’t use the bulk of their new AI features. I barely use them now!

Do you agree with this view? Would you pay to access older AI features on your current Pixel? Let’s discuss in the comments below.