Google has today unveiled its new software updates during the Google I/O 2024 event. As expected, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai took to the stage with a keynote focusing alot more on Google’s AI product. This was made even clearer after the presentation by OpenAI with a product that will rival what Google has.
So what is new?
Google Gemini Updates
Mr Sundar opened the event by reflecting on the steps that Google has taken to improve their own AI, dubbed Gemini.
“We want everyone to benefit from what Gemini can do,” said Pichai. He added to this teasing how Gemini will now be integrated into many of Google’s services.
The new update dubbed Gemini 1.5 Pro will see one of the major apps, Google Photos get help from the AI. Users will be able to get more relevant searches including how it can search and select photos based on contextual responses with a new feature called Ask Photos with Gemini.
Gemini will also be integrated into many services on Google’s Workspace, including Gmail. With this feature, Gemini will be able to search emails, obtain highlights from a Google Meeting among other capabilites.
Like Chat-GPT 4o, Gemini will also be able to use video to deliver better answers through Google’s new tech, Project Astra. This means users will be able to use their phone’s camera to ask the AI to analyse what they’re looking at and even offer solutions to problems like math or code.
In the same breath, Google unveiled Veo, a generative video AI model , which creates 1080p video based on prompts. Veo can be used in a tool called VideoFX, giving creators a new way of making video from scratch.
Gemini Integrated into Google Search
The big announcement was the new integration of Gemini on Google Search.
With the new AI Overviews feature, Google Search will be able to use AI to help users get better results. The company will make this possible through Multi-step reasoning, a feature that will let Google do all the research you need. For instance, Gemini can research the best restaurants in a location based on the theme you want.
Google Search will also now support searching using real-time videos. So you can get to record a video of something you want to fix and Gemini will search frame by frame and answer the queries.
Gemini on More Android Devices
Gemini will be rolling out to more Android smartphones, not just Samsung Galaxy and Pixel devices.
The Gemini app will be able to overlay on top of active apps, so you don’t have to switch back and forth.
It also seems that Google will be looking to compete with its AI rivals as Gemini 1.5 Pro will be priced at $3.50 for 1 million tokens. This is very cheap compared to GPT-4o’s rate of $5 per 1 million tokens.
