On the finish of I/O, Google’s annual developer convention on the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that the corporate had stated “AI” 121 occasions. That, basically, was the crux of Google’s two-hour keynote — stuffing AI into each Google app and repair utilized by greater than two billion folks all over the world. Listed below are all the most important updates from Google’s massive occasion, together with some further bulletins that got here after the keynote.
Gemini 1.5 Flash and updates to Gemini 1.5 Professional
Google introduced a model new AI mannequin known as Gemini 1.5 Flash, which it says is optimised for pace and effectivity. Flash sits between Gemini 1.5 Professional and Gemini 1.5 Nano, which its the corporate’s smallest mannequin that runs domestically on gadget. Google stated that it created Flash as a result of builders needed a lighter and cheaper mannequin than Gemini Professional to construct AI-powered apps and companies whereas protecting a few of the issues like a protracted context window of 1 million tokens that differentiates Gemini Professional from competing fashions. Later this 12 months, Google will double Gemini’s context window to 2 million tokens, which signifies that it is going to be in a position to course of two hours of video, 22 hours of audio, greater than 60,000 strains of code or greater than 1.4 million phrases on the identical time.
Challenge Astra
Google confirmed off Challenge Astra, an early model of a common assistant powered by AI that Google’s DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis stated was Google’s model of an AI agent “that can be helpful in everyday life.”
In a video that Google says was shot in a single take, an Astra person strikes round Google’s London workplace holding up their telephone and pointing the digicam at numerous issues — a speaker, some code on a whiteboard, and out a window — and has a pure dialog with the app about what it appears. In one of many video’s most spectacular moments, the appropriately tells the person the place she left her glasses earlier than with out the person ever having introduced up the glasses.
The video ends with a twist — when the person finds and wears the lacking glasses, we study that they’ve an onboard digicam system and are able to utilizing Challenge Astra to seamlessly keep it up a dialog with the person, maybe indicating that Google is likely to be engaged on a competitor to Meta’s Ray Ban good glasses.
Ask Google Images
Google Images was already clever when it got here to looking for particular photographs or movies, however with AI, Google is taking issues to the subsequent stage. In case you’re a Google One subscriber within the US, it is possible for you to to ask Google Images a posh query like “present me one of the best photograph from every nationwide park I’ve visited” when the feature rolls out over the next few months. Google Photos will use GPS information as well as its own judgement of what is “best” to present you with options. You can also ask Google Photos to generate captions to post the photos to social media.
Veo and Imagen 3
Google’s new AI-powered media creation engines are called Veo and Imagen 3. Veo is Google’s answer to OpenAI’s Sora. It can produce “high-quality” 1080p videos that can last “beyond a minute”, Google said, and can understand cinematic concepts like a timelapse.
Imagen 3, meanwhile, is a text-to-image generator that Google claims handles text better than its previous version, Imagen 2. The result is the company’s highest quality” text-to-image model with “incredible level of detail” for “photorealistic, lifelike images” and fewer artifacts — essentially pitting it against OpenAI’s DALLE-3.
Big updates to Google Search
Google is making big changes to how Search fundamentally works. Most of the updates announced today like the ability to ask really complex questions (“Find the best yoga or pilates studios in Boston and show details on their intro offers and walking time from Beacon Hill.”) and using Search to plan meals and vacations won’t be available unless you opt in to Search Labs, the company’s platform that lets people try out experimental features.
But a big new feature that Google is calling AI Overviews and which the company has been testing for a year now, is finally rolling out to millions of people in the US. Google Search will now present AI-generated answers on top of the results by default, and the company says that it will bring the feature to more than a billion users around the world by the end of the year.
Gemini on Android
Google is integrating Gemini directly into Android. When Android 15 releases later this year, Gemini will be aware of the app, image or video that you’re running, and you’ll be able to pull it up as an overlay and ask it context-specific questions. Where does that leave Google Assistant that already does this? Who knows! Google didn’t bring it up at all during today’s keynote.
WearOS 5 battery life improvements
Google isn’t quite ready to roll out the latest version of it smartwatch OS, but it is promising some major battery life improvements when it comes. The company said that Wear OS 5 will consume 20 percent less power than Wear OS 4 if a user runs a marathon. Wear OS 4 already brought battery life improvements to smartwatches that support it, but it could still be a lot better at managing a device’s power. Google also provided developers with a new guide on how to conserve power and battery, so that they can create more efficient apps.
Android 15 anti-theft features
Android 15’s developer preview may have been rolling for months, but there are still features to come. Theft Detection Lock is a new Android 15 feature that will use AI (there it is again) to predict phone thefts and lock things up accordingly. Google says its algorithms can detect motions associated with theft, like those associated with grabbing the phone and bolting, biking or driving away. If an Android 15 handset pinpoints one of these situations, the phone’s screen will quickly lock, making it much harder for the phone snatcher to access your data.
There were a bunch of other updates too. Google said it would add digital watermarks to AI-generated video and textual content, make Gemini accessible within the aspect panel in Gmail and Docs, energy a digital AI teammate in Workspace, eavesdrop on telephone calls and detect for those who’re being scammed in actual time, and much more.
Make amends for all of the information from Google I/O 2024 proper right here!
Replace Could 15, 2:45PM ET: This story was up to date after being revealed to incorporate particulars on new Android 15 and WearOS 5 bulletins made following the I/O 2024 keynote.
