Ask HN: How do you feel about using AI tools on your phone? Privacy vs. Utility
1 pointby fallinditch8 months ago2 comments
  • Bender8 months ago
    I'm likely the exception but I just want my phone to make/receive phone calls and text messages. My phone via real time spell check is already leaking a lot of data to my wireless provider over ipsec and Google over HTTPS simultaneously even if spell check is disabled and I am not OK with that.
    • fallinditch8 months ago
      Blimey. I'm not ok with that either.

      Someone was telling me the other day that they found their YouTube feed so distressing that they deleted their Google account and created a new one ... but YouTube kept on sending the same horrid content, presumably because of device fingerprinting. It was distressing for this person not only for the actual content that was in his feed but mainly because the YouTube algorithm had decided that this was what he wanted to watch. He showed me a clip of something from his feed and I was like "dude, I am sorry for you and worried about you, that is bad."

      So that's a bit off topic but the point is that the information they hold about us is vast and powerful.

  • TheMongoose8 months ago
    What actually sounds useful?
    • fallinditch8 months ago
      On a basic level it's commanding and automating actions like making bookings and purchases, managing your calendar, etc.

      But then it's operating a group or 'swarm' of specialized AI agent assistants to carry out research, communication, analysis, planning, reporting, content creation, software development, etc.

      So I'm not yet operating agents via my phone and the AI assistant on my phone is only going to help me by removing some friction and speeding things up a little.

      How do you use AI on your phone?

      • TheMongoose8 months ago
        I don't. None of that sounds useful to me.

        I don't want a slop machine to purchase things for me. I manage my calendar just fine with a calendar app.

        I don't need a swarm of agents to make up research results, I don't need AI to communicate nonsense on my behalf, analyze anything, and I damn sure don't want it to plan anything for me.

        If I needed to report on something I'd use something like Excel or SQL to organize data. The internet has enough slop content, certainly don't need to generate more of that.

        Absolutely don't need it to write garbage, security vulnerability laden, code for me. If I did for some reason a phone wouldn't be the right tool for that job anyway.