Samsung Enables Local AI Processing to Protect User Photos and Messages

Samsung Galaxy phones feature advanced AI tools for tasks like photo editing and text generation, but by default, user data such as photos, messages, and voice recordings are sent to Samsung's servers for processing. Although Samsung assures that this data is encrypted and secure, many users prefer to keep their personal information off the cloud.

To address privacy concerns, Samsung offers an option to block data transmission to the cloud and instead process AI tasks locally on the device. Users can enable this by going to Settings, selecting Galaxy AI, and activating "Process data only on device." This setting can be applied to all AI features or selectively for specific tools like the object removal feature in photos.

However, local processing comes with trade-offs. The quality of some AI outputs may decrease, especially for complex functions like smart object removal. Additionally, certain advanced features such as text summarization, automatic note formatting, webpage summarization, and art creation require cloud processing and will be disabled when using local-only mode.

Another consideration is storage space. Local AI processing requires downloading large language models to the device, with Samsung's text-writing component alone occupying about 3GB of storage. Removing these models frees up space but forces the device to revert to cloud processing for those features.

Ultimately, users must choose between prioritizing privacy by enabling local processing and sacrificing some AI capabilities, or maintaining default settings for maximum speed and quality. Samsung now provides transparency about where user data goes and how it is handled.