Google’s new plan: AI everywhere

 Google’s new plan: AI everywhere
 
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis speaks during a keynote address at Google I/O yesterday in Mountain View, Calif. Photo: Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images Axios tech expert Ina Fried writes from Google’s annual I/O conference, which draws 5,000 professional developers to Mountain View, Calif.:

Google is reinventing the product that made it one of the richest companies in history: search.Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis tells Ina in an interview that “agents in search is the next step. One of the cool things we get to do here at Google is build technologies that get immediately deployed into multibillion-dollar products.

Why it matters: Search is the cash cow that funds Google’s sprawling empire. But it faces an existential threat from AI chatbots, so the company is moving proactively to upend its own core business before someone else does.

🔬 Zoom in: In what it billed as the biggest change to the search box since its debut, Google announced yesterday that it’s allowing the box to expand for longer queries and chat-style exchanges.

Google has been headed in this direction for a while. It already puts AI-generated summaries at the top of search results and has a more chat-like experience, AI Mode.

But the company’s announcement pushes that strategy much further, signaling Google’s determination to keep users from drifting to standalone chatbots.

As part of that effort, Google is bringing the hottest trend in AI — agents — into search.

Instead of just finding out when your favorite band is coming to town, users can create a standing query that alerts them if any of the acts announce shows nearby.

Similar “information agents” can help with recurring questions about shopping and news.Shahram Izadi, Google’s general manager and vice president of XR (extended reality), speaks yesterday at the Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View, Calif. Photo: Manuel Orbegozo/Reuters

🕶️ On the hardware front, Google is finally moving forward with AI glasses, more than a decade after the flop of Google Glass. Meta has had success here with its Ray-Ban smart glasses, and Google sees its AI and search prowess as a way to stand out from its rival.

Google said the audio-only version of the smart glasses, being co-developed with Samsung and eyewear makers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster (pictured above), will be available this fall.

🔮 What’s next: Hassabis says his timeline on when to expect AGI is roughly the same as he’s been estimating for the past few years. Expect it in 2030, “maybe plus or minus one year,” he tells Axios.Share this story …  Everything Google announced.
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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