AT I/O, GOOGLE RAISES ITS GAME IN AI
Three new products may help keep company at top of tech heap
Google upped its stake in the high-tech battleground of artificial intelligence, unveiling three new products that aim to wrest the competitive edge from rivals Facebook, Apple and Amazon.
“We’re at a seminal moment for AI,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai told 7,000 people attending I/O, the tech giant’s annual developers conference at sun-splashed Shoreline Amphitheater, an outdoor concert venue near Google’s worldwide headquarters here.
Pichai, who has repeatedly stressed the importance of AI and machine learning, anticipates a momentous shift in computing: super-smart machines on every device we use guiding every moment of our days. He isn’t the only one. “We’re entering a golden age of machine learning and artificial intelligence,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a public conversation Wednesday at The Washing
ton Post’s Transformers Conference in Washington, D.C.
Google was an early pioneer in artificial intelligence, which drew on its massive data files derived from consumer searches on Google.com. But it has seen its mantle slip after breakthroughs by its rivals, such as Amazon’s Echo and Facebook’s bot platform.
To enthusiastic whoops and cheers from developers, Pichai & Co. unfurled Google Home, a small, voice-activated speaker that helps manage home-entertainment systems and smart devices, as well as Google searches.
Home uses the new AI-powered Google assistant, which leverages Google’s search and contextual queries it has been developing for years.
Google assistant is the evolution of Google’s original search: Rather than clicking on blue links on a desktop, Google is remaking itself into a personal assistant that will appear on a smartphone, in its new Home device and in Google’s expanding portfolio of apps that help people manage their daily lives.
Its newest app is Allo, a messaging app that lets consumers chat with one another, and Google assistant, which can answer questions as well as perform tasks. Allo features Duo, a video chat platform that lets users see the caller before answering.
“This is clearly how Google makes products now with AI baked into them,” Search EngineLand founding editor Danny Sullivan said, alluding to Home and Google assistant, a voice-enabled assistant for users to conduct a two-way dialogue with Google. “Google is now smart enough with machine learning to talk back to us.”
The ability of AI to transform tasks into a two-way dialogue “becomes very compelling if it can complete some of the tasks we want,” Sullivan said.
“Google calls it the next evolution of search. And this really is a big deal.”
The cascade of AI-friendly products, which leverage Google’s lead in search, is a “smart bid” to maintain, if not extend, its grip on the AI market, said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Creative Strategies.
“It’s smart how Google is masking AI bot interaction in a seamless, transparent manner.”
The 11th edition of I/O is the first since Pichai, who previously headed Android and Chrome development, was thrust into the CEO role after a corporate makeover that created the Alphabet parent company last year.
“We’re at a seminal moment for AI.” Google CEO Sundar Pichai