AI Operations & Administration

Google’s AI Revolution Takes Center Stage

Google well and truly stepped into the AI limelight yesterday at their annual I/O conference. Let's unravel all of it together as I translate the biggest announcements into what they mean for us in business contexts.

If you’ve been a casual observer of the AI space in recent months you’d be forgiven for being persuaded by many media commentaries that Google has fallen behind Open AI as the global leader in AI technology. 

Today’s announcements though, were a real flex by the tech giant. 

Watching their conference, I detected an unmistakable vibe of Google subtly reminding the world that they are the original AI powerhouse, and have been for at least the past decade.

Now, what gives Google a huge competitive advantage in the AI race is its established, simply massive, customer base. (This argument formed the basis of this article I wrote a few weeks back, about the competitive advantages Google and Microsoft hold in the AI race.)

Google is a household name, with its suite of products — Google Workspace, Google Meet, Google Drive, and the ever-popular Gmail — used by billions globally. 

To put that in context, imagine the entire population of Africa using Google Drive, and the subsequent data that Google has to feed its AI models. 

Now, as Google announces it is infusing AI into these platforms, it’s a recipe for a seismic shift in the AI landscape.

The Google I/O event was quite simply abuzz with impressive AI developments, and so I’m dedicating this conversation to them. Stay with me as I dive into the groundbreaking innovations…


1. Meet the PaLM 2 and Gemini models

Google’s latest large language model (LLM), PaLM2, reportedly outperforms OpenAI’s GPT-4 in reasoning, maths, and logic. When it comes to coding, PaLM2 apparently surpasses ChatGPT too. 

These are big calls by Google, and I’m going to be watching with a lot of interest in the coming weeks as these claims are tested by the AI community.

Read more about PaLM2 here.

The PaLM2 model comes in various forms, intriguingly named after animal constellations: Gecko, Otter, Bison, and Unicorn. 

Google is also prepping an entirely new multimodal (capable of processing text, images, videos and audio together) large language model, called Gemini. Rumours abound about the potential superpowers of this model, but for now we all just have to stay tuned for more information as it comes to hand.


2. Bard – Google’s rival to ChatGPT

Say hello to an improved Bard, Google's answer to ChatGPT, now accessible to all, with no more waitlists. Get access here

Bard, running on the PaLM 2 model, will offer seamless integration with Google Docs, Sheets, Gmail, and more. I’m not normally one for exclamation marks, but talk about a game-changer!

The cherry on top? A suite of "tools" within Bard for tasks like location mapping and image creation with Adobe Firefly. 

Bard_Demo_03_Image_Generation_v10_


3. Revamping search with AI

Google's bread and butter, search, is also receiving a significant AI upgrade. 

Google will now provide an “AI snapshot” that curates answers to your queries from top links. You can also ask follow-up questions, which opens a conversational mode — almost like having a personal AI assistant to help you with search.

What I also like about Google’s announcements about search is that they haven’t thrown the baby out with the bathwater. They realise that not everyone is ready, or wants to have their search results presented as an AI summary and conversation.

So, below the “AI snapshot” we’ll still see the traditional link-based search results that we all know and love.

Sign up for the new Google Search experience here.


4. Duet AI: Workspace's new partner

Personally, this is the one that I have been waiting for the most, and am jumping out of my skin to try.

Welcome to “Duet AI in Google Workspace”, your ultimate AI sidekick for the Google Workspace apps. 

It will offer automated prompt suggestions and perform a range of tasks, such as converting text to tables in Sheets, locating information in Gmail threads, assisting with email composition, suggesting AI generated images in Slides, and having ChatGPT-esque writing-assistant qualities built into Docs. 

I cannot overstate how big I think Duet AI for Workspace is going to be for businesses. It’s quite literally going to power a workplace revolution of efficiency and productivity.

(It’s not such good news for the future of all those AI Gmail extensions and document chat apps that have been released in their dozens over the past few months though.)

Watch this incredible demo video of Duet Ai in Workspace, and I’m sure you’ll be as excited as I am.


5. A bevy of AI advancements

The excitement didn’t stop there. 

CEO Sundar Pichai went on to say that Google is introducing a Magic Editor in Google Photos, making their text-to-music tools public, planning AI capabilities for Android, and enhancing Chrome with AI. Additionally, the ML Hub is being designed to assist developers in training and deploying models. 

It really was an all-you-can-eat buffet of AI innovations on offer yesterday.


The impact of all of this cannot be underestimated

In summary, Google is poised to redefine AI's role in our business lives, from innovative models and chatbots to search enhancements and Workspace AI assistants. 

As business leaders, the moment is now. It’s our golden opportunity to harness these AI transformations and infuse our businesses with a powerful technological edge.

But I've merely skimmed the surface here. 

Each of the developments mentioned above holds a wealth of potential, and I’ll be diving deeper into these breakthroughs in the coming days and weeks. 

Remember, as business leaders, our curiosity sparks innovation.

Let's remain explorative, understand the potential of AI, and evolve our businesses together.

After all, the future belongs to those ready to embrace change, and with such intuitive and powerful allies such as Google, the future looks more promising than ever!

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