Google charts virtual course
Artificial intelligence takes center stage at tech company’s I/O developers conference
Google is infusing artificial intelligence technology into all of its consumer products, from photos and mobile phones to home assistants and YouTube, the tech giant told developers Wednesday.
“We’re talking about an important shift from a mobile-first world to an AI-first world,” CEO Sundar Pichai told a crowd of about 7,200 people gathered at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View for Google’s annual developers conference, known as Google I/O.
As an example, Pichai unveiled an artificial intelligence app called Google Lens, designed to bring augmented reality — in which the real world is overlaid with virtual elements — to a mobile phone camera. Someone could use the phone to view a flower, he said, and Google Lens would pull information from the Internet to identify its type and whether it could cause a sneeze.
In another example, the phone’s camera could identify a cafe and pull up Yelp reviews, or connect to a wireless network automatically by scanning information on a router.
“Our computer vision systems are now even better than humans,” Pichai
said.
The message was similar to what Microsoft delivered last week at its developers conference, analyst Geoff Baber said in an email.
“We’re only at the dawn of a broader war in artificial intelligence and the home,” said Barber, a vice president of the research firm CCS Insight. Google’s scale puts it in a strong position, he said.
Google’s main source of income remains online advertising. But artificial intelligence should help it stay relevant and thus buttress its ad business, said Gene Munster, a longtime technology analyst and now managing partner with Minneapolis venture capital firm Loup Ventures.
“The big four — Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple — are all starting to position themselves for this next wave of computing,” he said.
Here are more highlights from Google I/O:
Android O: Google did not announce a formal name for the latest iteration of its popular mobile software, which remains simply called O and is expected to be released by the end of summer.
Android Engineering Vice President Dave Burke said O will finally allow picture-in-picture mode, a feature already common on Apple devices. It lets users watch videos in a small window in the background while using other apps.
Burke also previewed changes to Android’s copy and paste functions, which will fully select street addresses, email addresses and phone numbers without the hassle of dragging the copy bar the whole way through. O will then suggest Maps, Gmail or the phone keypad once the text is selected, again using artificial intelligence.
“All this will happen in real time, without any data leaving the device,” Burke said.
Android Go: This will be a stripped-down version of O, designed for apps on entry-level phones used by people on prepaid plans that limit the amount of data they can use each month.
Sameer Samat, Android and Google Play product management vice president, said Go would be made for global users with limited data connections.
Android is also redesigning apps like YouTube Go, Chrome and Gboard to drain less mobile data, and use up less storage and memory space.
For example, with the YouTube Go app, users can preview a video before they decide whether or not to use up data watching it. They can also choose the video’s resolution, and Go will tell them how much data that resolution will require.
The technology could be key to Google’s battles against other competitors in emerging markets, which unlike the U.S. are not saturated by smart phones.
“There are more Android users in India than the U.S. now,” Samat said. “The time is right to take investment to the next level.”
Google Home: The company updated its voice-activated device by adding a visual display and hands-free calling.
Users can now have Google Home send information — such as Google Map directions, flight plans and their daily calender — to any screen they want, including phones, tablets and televisions.
Rishi Chandra, vice president of Google Home, said Home users can use voice commands to make free calls to any phone in the United States and Canada.
Google Home will also offer Spotify, Soundcloud, Deezer and HBO Now. A Bluetooth feature will let users play audio from their smartphones at home.
“Everything can be done in a hands-free way, all from the comfort of my couch,” Chandra said. Google for Jobs: Google is making a push into the job search market by adding filters to help job seekers find jobs by city, industry, skill level or even projected commute time.
Pichai said the company is again adding machine learning to sort through jobs “that have been much harder to classify.” The service will be available in the U.S. “in the coming weeks” and internationally “in the near future,” he said. Assistant for iOS: Google is rolling out an iOS version of its virtual assistant app, going head-to-head with Apple’s Siri. Google is also trying to stem the momentum Amazon has build with its voice assistant, Alexa. Virtual reality: Google’s Daydream virtual reality headset will operate on Samsung’s newest model Galaxy S8 and S8+ phones later this summer. This will greatly expand the now-limited number of smartphones that can run Google’s latest entry into the VR race.
In addition, Google said it has lined up two key partners to develop its first VR viewer that doesn’t require a smartphone — HTC, which helped develop the Vive VR headset, and laptop giant Lenovo. Photos: Google is introducing a photo-book printing service, taking on long-standing online photo-book services like Shutterfly. But Google is adding artificial intelligence that will suggest themes of photos for the printed books, which start at $10 each.