Print AI: HP injects AI into its printers

HP jumped on the AI bandwagon today when it announced Print AI for its printers. Is it a ploy to extract even more money from unsuspecting customers, or something truly useful?

Here are the details:

• Print AI is available as a Beta.
• It adds new features to select HP printers.
• HP has not mentioned the price of the feature.

Perfect Output

HP highlighted two features of Print AI. It calls the first Perfect Output; a feature designed to remove unwanted elements before printing and to optimize printouts.

The example that HP gives is that of a webpage printout. These may waste a lot of ink and paper, if they are not optimized, as printouts may include ads, menus, and other unwanted content.

HP says that Perfect Output takes care of that through AI. The new feature will also help when printing spreadsheets. The new feature ensures that tablets and charts are not split across multiple printout pages.

How does it work? Through an interface that resembles other AI interactions. HP Print AI seems to combine options to communicate with the AI directly with options that the AI displays to the user that may be selected.

The AI displays several options in the previously mentioned webpage output interface. These allow users to switch between text, text and image, or text with more images. There are also options to increase the text size or generate a new design of the output. Other changes may be submitted via text input.

Print AI turned 47 pages of printout into a single page printout in the example that HP gives. It remains to be seen how well the feature handles printouts in real-world scenarios and tests.

HP provided the following before and after screenshots:

Next to optimizing printing, Print AI is also "simplifying the customer experience" according to HP. The AI improves workflows and helps users, accepting natural language input.

The last option allows customers to "transform photos into creative projects". This allows users through chats with the AI to create "unique layouts, custom styles, and fonts to personalize greeting cards for every occasion".

The AI is also auto-correcting common print errors. HP mentions the removal of unwanted objects and automatic upscaling of images here.

Closing Words

It is too early to tell how well the two features function. Print AI is available via an exclusive beta program at the time of writing. It is unclear when it lands, for which printers it will become available, and how much it will cost. There is no doubt that HP will charge for the feature, either directly or indirectly.

One thing that has not been mentioned either is privacy. Is the processing happening on servers elsewhere, or locally?

It will be interesting to see when customers get into an argument with the AI over third-party printer ink cartridges and other attempts to extract more money from customers.

What is your take on Print AI? Does it sound useful to you and would you use it even? Feel free to write a comment down below.

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