AI Galore: Key Announcements From Google I/O 2024
AI is on top of Googlers’ minds, and it seems they want everybody else to see it how they do. Google’s new software updates, which is packaging products and services with AI, suggest it wants developers to grab them by the tail and start building as soon and as extensively as possible. Here’s what the company announced at the conference.
- Google I/O 2024 wrapped up yesterday, marking the second consecutive year the company has held it for one day.
- The developer conference was a way to assert the company’s formidable AI push across its product portfolio.
- Google rolled out AI upgrades for several services, including Android, web search, Workspace, and more.
Over two-thirds of the world’s mobile users look forward to May when Google’s annual developer conference takes place each year. However, for the second consecutive year, the company is focusing on artificial intelligence as it continues to push for AI dominance.
Meanwhile, mobile took a back seat at Google I/O 2024, and hardware was left out of the car. Google launched the Pixel 8A as the budget-friendly option for its flagship line, upstaging Apple’s Let Loose spring event. It was, in turn, upstaged by OpenAI, which launched the GPT-4o a day before Google I/O 2024.
AI is on top of Googlers’ minds, and it seems they want everybody else to see it how they do. Google’s new software updates, which is packaging products and services with AI, suggest it wants developers to grab them by the tail and start building as soon and as extensively as possible.
Google’s AI onslaught is spearheaded by CEO Sundar Pichai, who delivered the keynote address at Google I/O 2024. “We’ve been investing in AI for more than a decade—and innovating at every layer of the stack: research, product, infrastructure, and we’re going to talk about it all today,” Pichai wrote.
“Still, we are in the early days of the AI platform shift. We see so much opportunity ahead for creators, for developers, for startups, for everyone. Helping to drive those opportunities is what our Gemini era is all about.”
Here’s what the company announced at the conference.
Google I/O 2024 Highlights
1. Gemini updates
One of Google’s most powerful large language models, Gemini 1.5 Pro, is now available globally for developers.
On the other hand, the company is bringing its smallest product, Gemini Nano, to the Chrome desktop client. Gemini Nano is designed for local use for a wide range of tasks, such as summarization and ‘help me write’ functionality.
Gemini Nano will be available in Chrome starting Chrome 126 as the company negotiates with other browser vendors to bring similar functionality.
Additionally, Gemini Nano is getting a multimodality upgrade for text, images, videos, and audio. Gemini Nano with Multimodality is designed to run on smartphones.
2. Search upgrades
Google is a web search company that still makes a bulk of its profits from search advertising. And AI is touted to threaten the company’s dominance, so why not integrate AI with search?
Microsoft’s experiment with Bing, while yielding good results at first, hasn’t generated the desired traction. Still, that’s no reason for Google to sit behind and get caught off guard again.
The company is rolling out AI overviews to millions of users through the Search Generative Experience (SGE). Google aims to enable AI-powered overviews in search for one billion users before the end of the year.
Google is also expanding Gemini’s role in search by adding a planning feature. Liz Reid, head of search at Google, said, “Planning is an area where, whether you’re planning a trip or planning for a party, there’s typically a lot of fun involved. But there’s also a lot of work involved for that. And so we’ve been asking the question, how can we take the work out of the planning for you?”
See More: May Tech Calendar: RSA Conference, Google I/O, Microsoft Build, Viva Technology And More
3. Android updates
The biggest Android update is that Gemini is replacing Google Assistant as the default AI assistant. Gemini Nano’s multimodal functions will give users an expressive smartphone experience through Android’s TalkBack feature.
This means a deeper integration with the mobile OS and Play Store applications could be on the cards. It currently works with Gmail, YouTube, and Google Messages. For instance, users can task Gemini with finding relevant information in a YouTube video. Gemini for Android already supports caption generation for photos, question-answering for articles, and more.
To this end, Google demoed DeepMind’s Project Astra, a visual chatbot with spatial understanding that can accept contextual inputs. Google Lens forms the basis of Project Astra, which receives inputs through the phone’s camera and mic and engages the user conversationally.
The Circle to Search function, which allows users to perform web searches by circling, scribbling, or highlighting, now supports higher complexities, including those of physics and mathematics. The handy feature caters to pupils and offers step-by-step instructions for solving equations, among other problems.
Expect the company to talk about Android 15 Beta 2 on Wednesday.
4. Workspace updates
Google Workspace services such as Gmail, Docs, Drive, Slides, and Sheets will now have Google 1.5 Pro as the accompanying LLM, allowing users to have a larger context window and other advanced features.
For now, Gemini 1.5 Pro is available for Workspace Labs and Gemini for Workspace Alpha users.
5. New launches
Google is out with Veo, a text-to-video generator that can create 1080p videos longer than a minute. Veo derives Google’s expertise from its work on the Lumiere model and Imagen-Video. Users can join a waitlist, but for now, Veo is available only for select creators as a private preview within VideoFX. Veo can directly compete with OpenAI’s Sora.
Also only available in private preview in VideoFX is Imagen 3, Google’s latest iteration of the text-to-image generator. Imagen 3 is more accurate at understanding prompts and is touted to deliver greater detailing and fewer artifacts for realistic images.
6. Hardware
Google launched the Pixel 8A a week before Google I/O 2024, so it is technically not part of the conference roster. Nevertheless, the smartphone is an anticipated model after the success of the Pixel 8 series.
This is the first budget Pixel model with a 120 Hz display refresh rate. It also rocks the Tensor G3 chipset, similar to the Pixel 8 Pro. Unlike its predecessors, the smartphone has an Ultra HDR feature and has a month’s headstart before Apple’s WWDC 2024.
Beyond the shimmering smartphones, developers will also have a new generation of Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) to play with later this year. Google teased its sixth-generation TPU, Trillium.
Google revealed limited details on Trillium but noted that it comes with the third generation of SparseCore and offers 4.7 times higher computing performance per chip over the fifth generation.
What was your takeaway from Google I/O 2024? Share your thoughts with us on LinkedIn, X, or Facebook. We’d love to hear from you!
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