We’ve seen the jarring impacts that Artificial Intelligence can have on the music industry in recent years, but that doesn’t mean technology is all evil. On Tuesday, March 14th, Google CEO Sundar Pichai gave his two-hour keynote speech at the annual I/O Developer’s conference, where AI was mentioned over 100 times. The tech giant has some exciting things in the works, from more intuitive photo libraries to new programs that are sure to make videography a breeze. Elsewhere, Google’s teams have been crafting their version of Marvel’s J.A.R.V.I.S. system, famously introduced in Iron Man. Rollout details remain sparse for now, but while we wait for updates, here’s everything you need to know about Project Astra.
What Is Project Astra?
As Croma puts it, Project Astra is “a new multimodal AI agent, capable of answering real-time questions, fed to it through text, video, and images and speech.” It simultaneously accesses information from the web and your surroundings using either your smartphone camera lens or your smart glasses. The system encodes video frames and speech into a timeline before caching it for recall. To simplify, Google’s latest tech will take in the world around you to perceive, respond and remember – much like the human mind.
What Possibilities Does Project Astra Unlock?
In a brief demo video, an employee showed just some of Project Astra’s impressive capabilities. From identifying objects that make noise and naming their specific parts to locating the user’s glasses she had lost based on their last recorded location, the upcoming service might stand to replace some real-life assistants thanks to its intuitive nature.
Other standout functions shown in the demo include determining a location (London) based on a quick glimpse out the window, explaining what specific code on a computer screen is used for and crafting the perfect band name. Google is still testing Project Astra, but Pichai’s keynote address suggested that some of its capabilities will be integrated into the Gemini app (comparable to OpenAI’s ChatGPT) later this year.
What Else Happened At Google I/O 2024?
Besides what we learned about Astra, there were plenty of other noteworthy moments at Google I/O 2024. First, we have Veo – an AI tool that can generate videos from scratch (similarly to OpenAI’s Sora). It’s capable of creating 1080p videos which are incredibly realistic thanks to DeepMind technology. For now, it will only be available to select creators via labs.google, but a wider rollout is in the works.
Google’s search engine is set to get a massive upgrade, with Artificial Intelligence bringing forth a multi-model approach with many more possibilities. Once launched, you can submit a video of your issue via your smartphone while asking Google to bring real-time results and solutions. They’re working to enhance your photo library too, as Gemini can intuitively search through years worth of pictures and videos to bring you specific memories. Hear everything Pichai had to say about Project Astra and Google’s other exciting updates below and let us know how you feel about AI taking over in the comments.
