A future steered by machines

> Google is incorporating learning capability in its new features such as the Lens that will quietly transform our phone camera into a search engine

uses machine-learning to identify real-world objects through your phone’s camera – but that’s just the start of the story. It can also analyse everything it sees, understand the context, work out where you are, and figure out what you want to do. As shown by Google, Lens can use optical character recognition to take the username and password from a WiFi router, and instantly connect your phone to that network. It can also bring up restaurant reviews and details, using GPS location data to instantly work out which branch you’re considering going to. All you need to do is point your camera in the right direction.

“In an AI-first world, we are rethinking all our products,” said Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai, who announced the company’s plans to use machinelearning to improve everything it does.

Google says Lens is coming to both Photos and Assistant.

The former, incidentally, will use machine-learning to analyse your pictures more thoroughly than ever.

As well as editing them and recognising the people in them, it will prompt you to send the right photos to the right people, and invite your contacts to send pictures of you, to you.

Through these improvements and brand-new features, the company is quietly transforming your camera into a search engine.

While that’s arguably the next natural step forward, the amount of data both iPhone and Android users will feed straight to the company will be staggering.

Google Glass failed to take off because people outside the tech community thought it was horribly creepy. Lens is aiming to be a socially-acceptable version of it.

Google doesn’t have the best of reputations when it comes to the privacy of its users, and the thought of the company not only being able to see everything you see, but to understand it too, won’t sit comfortably with everyone.

Google’s vision of the future looks incredible, but the fear is that all of that convenience will come at a huge price. – The Independent

(left) Google’s Pichai said that Google Lens (right) can use your phone’s camera to connect with the greater internet and immediately bring up useful information, such as restaurant reviews.