Google introduces new AI features
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google again put artificial intelligence in the spotlight at its annual developers conference yesterday.
The company opened its I/O event with literal bells and whistles at the Shoreline Amphitheatre — showing off what it’s like to experiment with artificially intelligent synthesizers and inviting thousands of people to participate in an AI drawing game.
The demonstrations warmed up the crowd ahead of a keynote by CEO Sundar Pichai, who made announcements about the company’s latest AI-powered services.
The company is introducing an autocomplete feature in its Gmail email service that uses machine learning to offer suggested ways to finish sentences users start typing. For example, “I haven’t seen you” might be autocompleted to “I haven’t seen you in a while and I hope you’re doing well.” Users can accept the completion by hitting tab.
For its photos service, Google is starting a new service called “Suggested Actions.” If it recognizes a photo of someone who is a Google contact, it can suggest sending it to the person. It can also convert photos to PDFs and automatically add color to black-and-white photos or make part of a color photo black and white. The changes are coming in the next two months.
The company’s digital concierge, known only as the Google Assistant, is gaining new abilities to handle tasks such as making restaurant reservations without human hand-holding.