Cyclon uses an old Google Pixel to let AI do everything, and 9to5Google questions who would want it
Cyclon proposes replacing the iPhone with an AI phone, running a prototype on a Google Pixel 8a that lets a chatbot manage notifications, automatically reply to WhatsApp messages, and pull images from the photo album. Users who pay $199 for a preorder can get the Pixel 8a first, and the final Cyclon Phone is expected to cost $699. 9to5Google questions whether anyone really needs an experience where AI writes replies and sends messages on their behalf.
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As the AI era continues to find its footing in the consumer market, “Cyclon” is a new smartphone/software experience that, to start, is reusing old Google Pixel phones with a software experience that literally uses AI to do every little thing. And my biggest question is just… who actually wants this?
The pitch of Cyclon, the founders explain in a video on Twitter/X, is to “[build] an AI phone to replace the iPhone.” And the central experience seems to be… talking to a chatbot. Examples in the video include telling the AI to “handle my notifications” and letting it monitor a WhatsApp message and reply to a friend asking for photos by grabbing those photos from your gallery without you as the user needing to touch the device.
Other examples on the company’s website have mixed utility at a glance. “Order my usual on DoorDash” and calling a courier to let them into a building certainly could be useful, but “tell the group chat I’m running ten minutes late” only to have the AI send the message on WhatsApp “in your words” not only seems like a waste of time, but a pointless disconnect from reality (as is all too common with these AI ventures).
The actual hardware side of things is also… interesting.
Cyclon says that it has a working prototype of the idea running on Google Pixel 8a units, and it’ll ship “first-batch” backers one of those units with their $199 pre-order of a later “Cyclon Phone” that itself is expected to cost $699 – so you’re getting two phones for $699. That alone seems a little questionable in the midst of RAMageddon, but I digress.
That “final” phone hardware… sure is something.
There are some good ideas here, some big promises, but more than anything I just want to know who actually wants to use a phone like this.
I’m all for the idea of AI making my life a little easier (despite finding hardly any ways it can do that so far), but sending everything through a chatbot that does everything in the background and even generates “your words” for responses to my friends and family just sounds awful. And the state of social media isn’t exactly helping matters here. Twitter/X is 90% AI replies for engagement for this sort of thing, and Cyclon is paying influencers to boost that engagement too, so genuine reactions just seem impossible to find.
Sound off in the comments below if you’re an actual human with an opinion on this one, because I’m dying to know what real people think of this.