Google Is Racing to Bring More AI to Android

“We’ve been doing things with AI for a long time as a company. And the advancements in generative AI are pretty exciting,” says Sameer Samat, vice chairman of product administration for Android and the Google Play app retailer. “But these aren’t that old in terms of putting them into products. So when you talk about productizing all of this, it’s extremely early days.” 

Computer Talk

Another space of Android getting the GenAI therapy: messages. This summer season, Google’s Messages app will probably be imbued with a Magic Compose function, which makes use of generative AI to supply recommended responses based mostly on the context of your messages. Numerous messaging apps already do a model of this by predicting which phrase you may want to use subsequent, however Magic Compose will generate whole sentences (and can helpfully recommend them earlier than you hit Send). 

Magic Compose can even change the tone of your message, for those who immediate it to achieve this, making one thing sound extra formal, extra poetic, or extra like Shakespeare (actually). Burke says that is constructed on what’s often called a few-shot coaching mannequin, by which a mannequin can study to carry out an app-specific perform based mostly on only a handful of coaching examples. 

Ben Bajarin, chief government and principal analyst at Creative Strategies, says Google’s restricted rollout of generative AI on Android is a great method. “At companies like Apple, and even at Microsoft, there is a genuine concern around this technology. So Google seems to be erring on caution and making sure this is trustworthy before bringing it to billions of customers,” he says. 

Bajarin additionally identified the computing limitations that also exist round these applied sciences. “On-device AI requires a tremendous amount of computing power,” he says. “Rolling it out to native software will require using the local processing power and not the cloud. If you look at some of the basic demos of Stable Diffusion that Qualcomm has shown, it really highlights the lack of native computing power on our mobile devices.” 

Android’s new generative AI and customization options are simply a part of a much wider software program replace. Android 14, which began rolling out as beta software program in February, can even embrace help for bigger screens (just like the Pixel Fold), battery optimization options, and enhanced security measures, like password-replacing passkeys. Google stated right this moment that it counts greater than 3 billion energetic Android units across the globe, spanning telephones, tablets, vehicles, and TVs. On the TV entrance, Google claims that Android TV OS is the highest streaming platform on this planet by shipments. And WearOS, its wearable units software program, is fast-growing. 

On stage right this moment, Samat emphasised interconnectivity throughout completely different {hardware} units, whether or not that’s by giving folks the flexibility to solid media to non-Google {hardware} or to discover their Apple AirPods extra simply from their Pixel telephone. Samat famous that greater than 800 million telephones now use RCS messaging, a normal that Google helps—and that Apple has famously withheld help for. Google executives additionally reminded the I/O crowd right this moment that the corporate is working with Samsung to construct an Android-based XR system. If you’ll be able to’t beat ’em, be a part of them? 

Unless it’s generative AI merchandise. Then, for those who’re Google, the stress is on.