Did that last email from your friend about this weekend’s plans sound suspiciously canned? Hate to break it to you, but that might’ve been because … it was. A little over a year after Google debuted its Inbox app, the internet giant has revealed that its Smart Reply feature is responsible for an impressive 10 percent of mobile responses sent in the app.Smart Reply, as its name implies, generates replies to incoming messages based on its contents, using artificial intelligence to send back a response so you don’t have to. And apparently, one out of every 10 messages are now being sent not by humans, but by the AI. This latest statistic was brought to light by Jeff Dean, a senior fellow in Google’s research group, at Wednesday’s AI Frontier conference in Santa Clara, California.
“What this does is it takes an incoming email message and then, given the text of the email message, it tries to predict what are likely responses you might want to give,” Dean said. “Now, 10 percent of mobile responses on email on the Inbox product are generated with this Smart Reply feature, so it’s saving people a lot of time.”
Of course, while 10 percent is a significant proportion, it’s unclear how many emails this actually translates to. After all, the Inbox app is not as popular as the Gmail app (though it does consistently find itself in the top 5o productivity apps in the App Store, and seems relatively popular on Android, too).
It seems likely, however, that the popularity of Smart Reply will continue to grow, as the feature gets better and better the more you use it (a product of being based on machine learning). So if you’re on the go and just need to clear out your inbox in a timely fashion, Smart Reply just may be the tool you’ve been looking for.
AT&T just made it a lot easier to upgrade your phone
Do you want to upgrade your phone more than once a year? What about three times a year? Are you on AT&T? If you answered yes to those questions, then AT&T’s new “Next Up Anytime” early upgrade program is made for you. With this add-on, you’ll be able to upgrade your phone three times a year for just $10 extra every month. It will be available starting July 16.
Currently, AT&T has its “Next Up” add-on, which has been available for the past several years. This program costs $6 extra per month and lets you upgrade by trading in your existing phone after at least half of it is paid off. But the new Next Up Anytime option gives you some more flexibility.
Motorola is selling unlocked smartphones for just $150 today
Have you been looking for phone deals but don’t want to spend a ton of money on flagship devices from Apple and Samsung? Have you ever considered investing in an unlocked Motorola? For a limited time, the company is offering a $100 markdown on the Motorola Moto G 5G. It can be yours for just $150, and your days and nights of phone-shopping will finally be over!
Why you should buy the Motorola Moto G 5G
Powered by the Snapdragon 480+ 5G CPU and 4GB of RAM, the Moto G delivers exceptional performance across the board. From UI navigation to apps, games, and camera functions, you can expect fast load times, next to no buffering, and smooth animations. You’ll also get up to 128GB of internal storage that you’ll be able to use for photos, videos, music, and any other mobile content you can store locally.
The Nokia 3210 is the worst phone I’ve used in 2024
Where do I even start with the Nokia 3210? Not the original, which was one of the coolest phones to own back in a time when Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace wasn’t even a thing, but the latest 2024 reissue that has come along to save us all from digital overload, the horror of social media, and the endless distraction that is the modern smartphone.
Except behind this facade of marketing-friendly do-goodery hides a weapon of torture, a device so foul that I’d rather sit through multiple showings of Jar Jar Binks and the gang hopelessly trying to bring back the magic of A New Hope than use it.
The Nokia 3210 really is that bad