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Android’s new chapter, Oakter’s tidy charger, & AI isn’t to blame for job losses
Google calls the December update for Android, rolling out now with the Pixel phones as first receivers, a “new chapter for Android”.
Opening thoughts. Google calls the December update for Android, rolling out now with the Pixel phones as first receivers, a “new chapter for Android”. The intention is to shift from traditional annual updates that mark the arrival of new features and instead switch this rollout to more frequent releases. That means you’ll see the latest features arrive as soon as they’re ready. Interesting approach, lends more credence to the monthly Android updates (and Pixel Drops, in the Pixel line-up’s case) to release new features for users. For instance, the latest Android 16 update brings AI powered summaries for messaging apps (Google is particularly staying away from other apps cluttering this; a stark contrast to Apple’s approach), a new Dark Theme that brings apps that don’t have their own dark themes within its fold and extended Parental Controls for better monitoring and controls for screen time and app usage. And for those who aren’t on a phone running Android 16 yet, there’s the extended Circle to Search to look forward to, which can now be invoked to search if text you see on the screen likely represents a scam. Interesting take.
Last week on Wired Wisdom: Appreciating Oppo & Hasselblad, Tata Sierra’s return and Windows 11’s mess
EDITOR’S MARGIN: TRADITIONAL SEARCH VS AI’s FACTS
“We take pride in the amount of work we’ve put in to give as accurate an information as possible. But the current state of the art AI technologies are prone to some errors. This is why people also use Google Search and we have other products which are more grounded in providing accurate information. But the same tools are helpful if you want to creatively write something. You’ve to learn to use these tools and for what they are good at, and not blindly trust everything they say,” the words of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, in an interview with the BBC, recently.
The core admission is something I’ll get to first, before moving to why these words by Pichai really matter. The Google CEO is essentially giving a carefully worded disclaimer about AI's limitations while defending its value. The current AI systems (which would include their own Gemini, of course) make mistakes with information (mind you, they confidently generate this wrong information, for unsuspecting users) and this is as significant a public admission as you’d ever get from any AI company, that has invested billions in getting AI right. “There are moments these AI models fundamentally have a technology by which they predict what’s next, and they are prone to errors,” he also says.
It is interesting that Google is now pitching AI chatbots and Google Search as complimentary, despite the ever thickening layer of AI in traditional search that we are used to. The choice for believing what AI says in AI Mode or the AI generated summaries in Search, or doing their own thorough research manually, now lies solely at the doorstep of the user. “You’ve to learn to use these tools,” is a subtle shift of this responsibility to the user. That’s an AI company basically saying — don’t blame us if you work with the wrong information generated by our own AI tool because it’s still learning. Remarkable, because Pichai is wording something I’ve been saying for years, albeit a bit different — I don't believe AI results and always fact check what it regurgitates (it is wrong more often than you may like to believe). And I’ve been roundly criticised for it, by the AI enthusiasts.
Really, my question here is — why are we pumping all this money into AI, when it simply can’t get basics right, even after years of trying? The contradiction is amazing — Google is aggressively pushing AI while simultaneously telling people not to rely on it for accuracy. This is the AI industry's challenge. They’ve built expensive, fundamentally unreliable tools and are now trying to find the right use cases and liability frameworks. What method for search do you use? Traditional search engines, or an AI chatbot? I’d love to know.
TECH SPOTLIGHT: OAKTER 65-WATT GaN CHARGER
There’s a marked push towards higher capacity and faster speed chargers, with the adoption of the newer generation technology called gallium nitride, or GaN. The advantages are three pronged — runs cooler, holds charge speeds for longer, and charger sizes have reduced significantly. No longer are we looking at larger and larger boxes, the higher we go up the charge speeds ladder. Remember that annoyance of multi-port chargers in particular, fitting loosely in the sockets, and tilting dangerously downwards? We seem to have seen the back of that. Nevertheless, must switch focus to another addition to this new generation of fast chargers, from the Indian tech company Oakter. This is simply called Oakter 65W Fast Charger, and is priced around ₹1,399.
It is a made in India charging accessory, and there is a clear focus on quality with how it is built and the overall packaging. An enamel white finish should work for most users, and the design of the pins as well as the charger allowed it to fit properly into a range of wall sockets and power strips/surge protectors. I tested this with an Apple MacBook Pro, an Oppo Find X9 Pro, an Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max and also a Xiaomi 15 Ultra — this holds close to the 65-watt charging speeds even with sustained usage (most useful with the MacBook, for instance). There is some heating that is apparent on the sides in the first few minutes of a fast charging phone being juiced up, but that tempers down gradually all the way through till full charge. The only limitation I see is that this has just one USB-C port — it’d have been ideal to have two USB-C ports or even an older, larger A port for charging two devices at the same time. That may have reduced relevance for laptop usage scenarios, but would’ve been better for multiple phones, tablets, earbuds and smartwatches. At this time, Oakter doesn’t seem to have a multi-port charger in their portfolio, and it is time that gets corrected soon.
Do check out my other newsletter, Neural Dispatch: AI conversations with DeepMind’s Pushmeet Kohli and OpenAI’s Srinivas Narayanan
SECOND THOUGHTS: I REPEAT, HUMANS > AI
The layoffs that you keep hearing about, Arvind Krishna believes these job losses, and which are attributed to the perceived capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) — it isn’t at all that. Wrong assumptions, misrepresentation of intent, and an undeserving recognition for AI tools. The IBM CEO, in a recent interview, made it very clear that whatever job losses have happened in recent months, is largely due to companies believing they over-hired during the pandemic years, and now want to balance the books. Krishna says that business is never completely optimised and it now has to correct. Even then, companies tend to go above what’s needed when it is needed, and then course correct to find an equilibrium, which means they go below what’s needed as a result.
Krishna also says, “Wouldn’t you rather have an entry-level person and AI makes them more like a 10-year expert? Isn’t that more useful to me than the other way around? Otherwise, where is the talent who’s going to come up with the next great product? Where is the person who’s going to be able to convince a client to deploy technology the way it should be deployed? That’s why I think some are being shortsighted.” That’s straight talk for the companies that think replacing humans with AI will be ideal. IBM is hiring, and that proves Krishna’s point.
