Google I/O, Google I/O, is the biggest developer conference of the year and it almost makes it to us.
The I/O, scheduled for May 20-21 at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, will showcase product launches from across Google’s portfolio. Expect a lot of news related to Android, Chrome, Google Search, YouTube, and of course, Google’s AI-driven chatbot, Gemini.
This is what you’re expecting.
Gemini and ai
AI is the Tech du Jour, and Google, like its rival, has invested heavily in it.
I/O’s Shoo-in is a new addition (or number) to Google’s flagship Gemini family of AI models. Over the past few weeks, leaks suggest that the updated Gemini Ultra model is on the way, suggesting that the Gemini Ultra is Google’s best Gemini product.
This upgraded Gemini Ultra could be a more expensive Gemini subscription.
Google offers a single premium tier, Gemini Advanced ($20 per month) to unlock additional features in Gemini Chatbot. However, Google will soon be able to launch two new plans, Premium Plus and Premium Pro. It is not yet clear what benefits will be attached and how these plans will be priced compared to Gemini Advanced.
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Google will almost certainly talk about ASTRA about its broad efforts to build AI apps and “agents” for real-time multimodal understanding. Also, perhaps on the agenda is Project Mariner, Google’s AI “agent” that can navigate and take action across the web on your behalf. X people have discovered “computer usage” in code on Google’s AI Studio developer platform.
Android 16
For the first time this year, Google is hosting another event, the Android Show, specializing in Android updates. It will take place on Tuesday about a week before I/O.
The latest version of Android, Android 16, will be the focus. Android 16 is expected to bring improved notifications and a whole new design language, Material 3 Expressive. In a leaked blog post, Google explains Top-to-Bottom overhaul and expressive document 3, with greater responsiveness and “action elements” pop.
Android 16 is primarily an update to Life of Life, judging from reports. We will introduce support for Auracast. This makes it easy to switch between Bluetooth devices. It also has a lock screen widget and a variety of new accessibility features.
Google can also spotlight the latest version of Android XR, a mixed reality operating system, and spotlight the company’s OS, the wearable software, with WEAR.
Everything else
With the official I/O schedule, Google has a lot to discuss following the Android show and I/O Keynote address.
This schedule lists sessions specializing in Chrome and Google Cloud, Google Play (The Android App Store), Android development tools, and Gemma’s “open” AI models.
Last year, Google announced some AI-themed surprises in I/O. This includes a set of models that have been fine-tuned for an educational application called LearnLM. Google’s upgrade to Viral Podcast Generation Notebook Lum may be one such surprise. The leaked code is likely to reveal a “Video Overview” tool that creates a video overview and leverage Google’s VEO 2 video generation model.
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