At the end of I/O, Google’s annual developer conference at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that the company had said “AI” 121 times. That, essentially, was the crux of Google’s two-hour keynote — stuffing AI into every Google app and service used by more than two billion people around the world. Here are all the major updates from Google’s big event, along with some additional announcements that came after the keynote.
Gemini 1.5 Flash and Updates to Gemini 1.5 Pro
Google announced a brand new AI model called Gemini 1.5 Flash, which it says is optimized for speed and efficiency. Flash sits between Gemini 1.5 Pro and Gemini 1.5 Nano, which is the company’s smallest model that runs locally on devices. Google said that it created Flash because developers wanted a lighter and less expensive model than Gemini Pro to build AI-powered apps and services while keeping some of the features like a long context window of one million tokens that differentiates Gemini Pro from competing models. Later this year, Google will double Gemini’s context window to two million tokens, enabling it to process two hours of video, 22 hours of audio, more than 60,000 lines of code, or more than 1.4 million words simultaneously.
Google Debuts Project Astra: Universal AI Assistant
Google showed off Project Astra, an early version of a universal assistant powered by AI that Google’s DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis described as Google’s version 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 user moves around Google’s London office holding up their phone and pointing the camera at various objects — a speaker, some code on a whiteboard, and out a window — engaging in a natural conversation with the app about what it sees. In one of the video’s most impressive moments, Astra correctly tells the user where she left her glasses without the user ever mentioning them. The video ends with a twist: when the user finds and wears the missing glasses, we learn that they have an onboard camera system capable of using Project Astra to seamlessly carry on a conversation, hinting that Google might be working on a competitor to Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses.
AI Enhancements in Google Photos and New Media Creation Tools
Google Photos was already intelligent in searching for specific images or videos, but with AI, Google is taking things to the next level. Google One subscribers in the US will soon be able to ask Google Photos complex questions like “show me the best photo from each national park I’ve visited,” leveraging GPS information and its own judgment to present options. Additionally, users can ask Google Photos to generate captions for posting photos to social media.
Google’s new AI-powered media creation engines, Veo and Imagen 3, were also unveiled. Veo, Google’s answer to OpenAI’s Sora, can produce “high-quality” 1080p videos lasting “beyond a minute” and understands cinematic concepts like timelapse. Imagen 3, a text-to-image generator, is claimed to handle text better than its predecessor, producing lifelike, photorealistic images with fewer artifacts, rivaling OpenAI’s DALL-E 3.
Transforming Google Search with AI
Google is making significant changes to how Search fundamentally works. Most updates, like the ability to ask 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, will only be available through Search Labs, Google’s platform for experimental features. However, a new feature called AI Overviews, tested for a year, is finally rolling out to millions in the US. This feature presents AI-generated answers atop search results by default, with plans to expand globally by year’s end.
Android 15: AI Integration and New Features
Google is integrating Gemini directly into Android. When Android 15 releases later this year, Gemini will be aware of the app, image, or video being run, allowing users to pull it up as an overlay and ask context-specific questions. One notable new feature in Android 15 is Theft Detection Lock, which uses AI to predict phone thefts and lock the device accordingly. Google’s algorithms detect motions associated with theft, quickly locking the screen to hinder unauthorized access.
Wear OS 5: Major Battery Life Improvements
While not yet ready for rollout, Wear OS 5 promises significant battery life improvements. Google stated that Wear OS 5 would consume 20% less power than Wear OS 4 during a marathon. Wear OS 4 had already enhanced battery life for compatible smartwatches, but Google aims for even better power management in its next iteration. Developers received a new guide to create more efficient apps, further enhancing battery conservation.
Additional Announcements
There were numerous other updates. Google plans to add digital watermarks to AI-generated video and text, make Gemini accessible in the side panel of Gmail and Docs, power a virtual AI teammate in Workspace, listen in on phone calls to detect real-time scams, and much more.
For more detailed information, check out the full coverage on Engadget.
