5 bizarre AI TV features that simply shouldn’t exist

Summary

AI is integrated into TVs for picture upscaling & smart features, but some like voice prompts & spatial audio may not be practical.
AI Energy Mode & AI picture upscaling on TVs can be too intrusive or change the viewing experience, leading to potential drawbacks.
Connecting smart devices to your TV for push notifications & calendar integration may offer little benefit, as most may prefer simpler methods.

Everybody is focusing on AI and, a lot of the time, that makes a ton of sense. AI can enhance so much around us and can help us get through tasks each day more simply. For example, you can get detailed descriptions to questions that you may not know using a large language model and search like ChatGPT.

AI has been around for a long time but many companies are pushing AI initiatives now more than they ever have. That includes consumer tech companies, adding in AI to our phones like Apple Intelligence or smart speakers like Amazon Alexa voice assistant. Another huge market where AI plays a prominent role is smart TVs. AI can make some features even greater in a smart TV or do something the TV hasn’t done before.

These can include picture upscaling without you having to touch any settings buttons, sound customization for a room, and smart home device syncing. But there are plenty of other AI features that are presented to consumers to help sell TVs that actually aren’t worth their time. Here’s a list of AI features that shouldn’t sway your purchasing decisions, as they don’t do much.

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LG WebOS

LG WebOS is the operating system that runs many LG TVs. The interface is easy to interact with and it offers adaptive features to its environment, so it can dim the picture if it’s bright out or turn up the volume if the noise is loud

1 Using AI to ask your TV questions

Why is this even a thing?

A woman using voice search through an Alexa remote on a Fire TV

Amazon / Pocket-lint

Using a voice remote is a really great AI feature that is offered on a lot of TVs. It is also offered by a lot of cable companies, allowing you to easily search in the guide for the channel or show that you want. With a TV voice remote or one that comes with your streaming device, such as a Roku voice remote, it can be used to search streaming platforms for content. But some TVs will allow you to hold down the button on the remote a little longer and ask your TV a question.

LG’s QNED evo series offers this feature and it uses a large language model, similar to Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini, to pull a search for prompts that you may give it. The real problem is how often would you actually use this? Any question you want to ask your TV will probably be answered by your voice remote prompts to the streaming services or the cable. There aren’t many instances where you’re going to be asking your TV about a topic completely unrelated to television. If you are, you’re probably going to just reach for your phone.

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2 Spatial 3D sound

Specific but odd at the same time

Some people do like to watch TV with headphones in. They like the privacy and may not want to disturb someone who is asleep next to them. That’s a good enough reason in its own right. But there are TVs that will offer spatial audio while you’re listening. That is technology built into the earbuds, not the TV and is available in a ton of different earbuds. This uses AI to recognize the environment around you and provide you with better audio catered to it.

There aren’t many instances where you’re going to be asking your TV about a topic completely unrelated to television.

But a company like Samsung that makes more earbuds and TVs can make them sync up and take the audio even further. WIth Galaxy Buds Live, Buds Pro, Buds 2, or Buds 2 Pro, you can sync your earbuds with your Samsung TV and get 3D sound. This means that the TV will recognize how your head is aligned, tilted, or moving and will adjust the audio to that. How often do you move a lot when you’re watching TV? Most people will just be lying on their couch watching. This is an unnecessary combo between the TV and earbuds.

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3 Integrate your calendar with your TV

Why do you need your calendar somewhere else?

TCL / Pocket-lint

You can integrate a lot of smart devices with your smart TV. Whether they are Matter devices, all in the same smart home ecosystem, or follow Thread protocol, you can connect devices together and run them either through a hub or separately. If you want a push notification sent to your TV that your washer has finished, you can do that and you’ll be notified to avoid your clothes smelling musty.

Some TVs can fully integrate other parts of your smartphone, such as your calendar. Is that really necessary? TCL’s AI assistant can give you a rundown of your daily events as you’re watching TV. This may be something that you use once in a while, but most people will either look at a physical calendar or their phone to keep up to speed. While it isn’t the most absurd waste of AI, it seems a bit superfluous.

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4 AI Energy Mode

The idea isn’t bad but the execution can drive you crazy

Flight Simulator game on Cloud streaming tv

Saving money on your energy bill will make everyone happy. There are little tips and tricks you can use to do so, such as getting energy-efficient light bulbs and setting timers to have them shut off when they aren’t needed. Your TV also offers energy-saving modes, which can help lower your monthly costs. But sometimes, they can be a little bit overbearing.

Samusng’s AI Energy Mode will have the TV detect the lighting in the environment and adjust the TV’s settings accordingly. It will also analyze the usage of the brightness the more you watch the TV to automatically adjust the settings when you start watching something. But it will also adjust the brightness as a show changes scenes. This could really throw off the viewing experience, especially if you need to turn on a light for something during it. Going from bright to dark to bright again is more annoying than paying a few extra cents on your energy bill.

Samsung notes that AI Energy Mode can help lower energy costs, but those costs vary region to region.

5 AI picture upscaling

This is both a pro and a con

One of the main selling points of AI features in smart TVs is picture upscaling, which automatically adjusts colors, framerate, and clarity to make the picture on your screen as clear as possible. For newer TVs, this can work wonders on the content that you’re watching, especially anything live, and make it feel like you’re actually there.

But there is some content that this feature can actually make look worse, mainly older shows and movies. If a program or movie is mostly in black and white, AI upscaling can actually make it look more artificial as it smooths out the details too much. The graininess of the older content is part of the charm and the upscaling can provide you with a version that perhaps wasn’t what was meant to be seen. It can also introduce colors and lighting that weren’t part of the creators’ original vision, which has caused high profiles like Christopher Nolan to speak out against features like this.