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At I/O this week, Google gave the developer community a look at what’s in store for next year, and unsurprisingly, it’s all about artificial intelligence. The company’s lengthy keynote on Tuesday focused almost entirely on AI and the upgrades the company has made to its Gemini model. CEO Sundar Pichai even noted that presenters said the word “AI” 121 times. Some features are rolling out now, while others will arrive later this year after more testing. But here are some of the more interesting things the search giant showed off in Mountain View.

Gemini 1.5 Pro and Flash

Google offers its Gemini 1.5 Pro model in Gemini Advanced, Google’s version of ChatGPT Plus, with an extended context window of 1 million tokens. This will help him “make sense of multiple large documents, up to 1,500 pages in total.” And you can upload these files directly from Google Drive now. For those who need the fastest response possible, the Gemini 1.5 Flash is a smaller model “optimized for narrower or high-frequency tasks.” Both versions are available in preview today in over 200 countries ahead of the official release in June. A 1.5 Pro version with a 2 million context window is also available for Google Cloud customers, but you’ll need to join a waiting list.

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AI reviews

Google has spent the last year testing its Search Generative Experience (SGE), which puts AI-generated answers at the top of search results and aims to quickly answer your question at a glance; no more clicking on blue links. At I/O, Google renamed SGE “AI Insights” and said it’s “rolling out to everyone in the US, with more countries coming soon.” The feature has put some search-driven publishers on edge, as the data displayed by AI Overviews has been pulled from their sites, but Google insists that “we see that links included in AI Overviews receive more clicks than if the page appeared as a traditional web listing for this query.” Coming soon, Google says you’ll be able to adjust AI Overviews to get a simple or more complex answer.

Ask for pictures

Even if your Google Photos account is carefully curated into albums, it can still be a chore to pull up an image when you need it. With Ask Photos, you can have a conversation with your photo albums through Gemini and the AI ​​will show you photos. Google promises you can go a little deeper than “show me pictures of the Eiffel Tower” to ask things like “Show me the best picture of every national park I’ve visited” or “What birthday themes did we have days of my child? ” Ask Photos is an experimental feature that will be rolled out “soon”.

Project Astra

Project Astra is a next-generation AI assistant that can see the world around you and provide tips and advice throughout the day. In a demonstration (below), a Google employee accessed the AI ​​assistant on a smartphone, pointed its camera at various objects and asked Gemini to identify or provide details about them. He identifies parts of a speaker, what type of code is displayed on the monitor, and in which neighborhood Google’s office is located by looking out the window. He also remembers where the employee left her glasses. In our own demo, we got more mixed results, probably due to our artistic talents (video above). The company plans to release parts of Project Astra later this year through the Gemini app.

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Veo video generator

Google introduced a new AI video generator, image creator and music creation toolkit during its keynote. Like OpenAI’s Sora, the Veo video generator takes text prompts and turns them into 1080p videos longer than 60 seconds. It’s available today for “select artists in private preview” and via a waiting list. Google plans to roll it out more widely in the future, as well as YouTube Shorts as a new video creation tool.

Gemini Upgrade for Google Workspace

Google added its Gemini smarts to Workspace earlier this year, and its enterprise-focused software will now get a Gemini 1.5 Pro upgrade. When people launch Gemini in the Gmail, Docs, Drive, Slides, and Sheets sidebar, Google says that “Gemini can answer a wider variety of questions and provide more insightful answers.” This includes asking Gemini to summarize long email threads or documents. The upgrade is available now for those using it through Labs or Workspace Alpha; everyone else gets it next month.

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Hands-on with Project Starline 3D video conferencing

At I/O, Google showed off its Project Starline 3D video conferencing solution, and it’s pretty impressive. Project Starline includes a powerful screen called a light field display and six large web cameras that capture the user. Webcams are designed to record 3D video of your face, body and any objects you show during the conversation from different angles. You feel like you’re in the room with someone during a video call instead of a small chat box. This won’t be something you’ll use at home; your office will probably have to spend money to install Project Starline, but Google says the technology can increase attention and memory recall. See our hands on for more.

Scam call alerts

Google is testing an AI-powered alert system that warns Android users of fraudulent phone calls in real time. It uses Gemini Nano, an AI model that can run locally on a smartphone without connecting to the Internet. If the AI ​​catches keywords related to fraud (such as a password request), it can prompt you to close. You can dismiss the popup if the call is legitimate. Details are scarce at this stage, causing concern among security experts, but Google says the Nano works locally without connecting to the internet. “All of this protection happens on the device, so your conversation remains private to you.” He promised more information “on this feature to be included later this year.”

Android Theft Protection

Google is taking a page from Apple with Android Theft Protection, which will lock a phone if it’s been stolen to prevent thieves from accessing banking apps and other sensitive data on your phone. If your phone is stolen, it will require biometric authentication and a time delay before any settings can be changed, which is meant to give you enough time to get to another device and change your login details or to erase the device. It will roll out via Google Play Services later this year to Android 10+ devices, with some features available in Android 15.

Sorry, your phone has been hacked

In an effort to prevent the spread of fraudulent apps on Google Play, a new feature alerts developers if their apps are running on devices infected with malware. Among other things, it allows Android to notify a developer if another app can record the screen, overlay content, or take control of the phone.

Google Cast is coming to cars, starting with the Rivian

Need to kill some time while charging your EV or waiting in the pickup line? Google Cast is coming to cars, starting with Rivian via a “simple wireless update…coming soon.” The feature only works when parked so as not to distract the driver. It’s also coming to other car brands with Android Automotive OS, but Google didn’t say which ones.

Everything announced at Google I/O