Google’s annual I/O conference has entered Day 2, and we continue to see an even greater role for AI in the company’s greater scheme of things. Clearly, AI can be considered the central theme of how Google wishes to see its operations grow in the coming years, which in turn translates to making things better for the user community.
To better reflect Google’s renewed focus on artificial intelligence, the company even announced it would bring all its AI related activities and research under a single umbrella that would be appropriately named as Google AI. Not to mention, aspects of its research on artificial intelligence is also being integrated into almost all of Google’s products and services.
Mentioned here is the list of the services where Google wishes to integrate with AI technologies if it hasn’t done already.
Voice: Google Assistant is now better placed than any time before in the history of human race on earth to mimic the human voice. So lifelike, that it is practically impossible to differentiate the artificial from the real.
Also, it isn’t just about the voice quality as it can pose the right questions, besides also putting in the right answers as well. It can even add a few occasional ‘mmhmm’ or ‘hmm’ to make the conversation look natural and lifelike.
As of now, the Google Assistant can take calls and make a booking at say, the hair saloon for the user, with the human at the other end having no inkling they have conversed with a machine.
Or maybe there is another instance of Google Assistant at the other end too, and it would be mighty interesting to see how two Google Assistant communicate among themselves.
Natural conversations: Google Assistant has also been made more competent in conversing with humans in a more natural manner. So while previously one would use the keyword ‘Hey Google’ each time one needed to interact with the smart assistant, that is no longer a requisite for all subsequent interactions the user makes with the assistant.
What’s more, the Assistant is able to answer more complex questions as well. It can be like multiple queries clubbed together, and the Assistant will be able to take each apart and make meaningful responses for all of those.
That is not all as Google said they are working with third-party firms like Donuts, Dominos and the like to make ordering their products via Assistant all the more easy.
Gmail: The email program favored by millions across the globe will soon be injected with a healthy dose of AI. That would be in the form of ‘smart compose’, which literally will suggest texts that the user is most likely to enter. That could be say the address of the user and the program can add those in the email, thereby saving users from having to type it all manually.
Google Maps: Users will soon be able to launch Google Maps with their camera. There will also be pointers on the app that point the right direction for the user to follow to reach their destination.
There might even be a cartoon fox or other characters that would be running ahead of the users in the app to show directions.
Similarly, the Map application will also have a new ‘For You’ section that will show a list of destinations you might like to visit. The list will be drawn up based on the user’s reviews along with the places he or she often visits and so on. Those can be business locations or just restaurants, booking for which can be made right from within the app itself.
Google Lens: The Google Lens app is set for an update so that users will have a better understanding of the world around them. For this, users will only have to point the camera around them, and the built-in computer vision tech will populate the screen with relevant info about the object in focus.
Google News: The News app too will be provided with an AI makeover so it will be showing the top five news stories that it feels will be of most interest to the user. Those will be selected from local news trending at the moment while also taking into consideration the search terms most used by the user.
