Transfer over Google Assistant, Google is seemingly engaged on a brand new AI. The Info reviews that Google is engaged on a brand new “Pixie” AI assistant that can be unique to Pixel gadgets. Pixie will reportedly be powered by Google’s new “Gemini” AI mannequin. The report says Pixie would launch first on the Pixel 9: “Ultimately, Google desires to convey the options to its lower-end telephones and gadgets like its watch.”
Thus far, Google and Amazon reportedly have plans to reboot their voice assistants with the brand new wave of enormous language fashions. Each are solely on the rumor stage, so neither firm has promoted how a massive language mannequin will assist a voice assistant. At present, the standard complaints are often round voice recognition accuracy and response time, which a language mannequin does not look like it could assist with. Presumably, massive language fashions would assist enable longer-form, extra in-depth responses to questions, however whether or not shoppers wish to hear an artificial robotic voice learn out a paragraph-long response is one thing the market will determine.
One other function listed within the report is that Google may construct “glasses that might make use of the AI’s means to acknowledge the objects a wearer is seeing.” Between Google Glass and Mission Iris, Google has began and stopped plenty of eyewear initiatives.
The transfer reveals how Google has modified its considering round AI assistants over the previous decade. It used to view Google Assistant as the way forward for Google Search, so it needed Assistant to be accessible in all places. Google Assistant was an excellent product for a time, accessible on all Android telephones, on iOS through the Google app, and through numerous purpose-built {hardware} just like the Google Dwelling/Nest Audio audio system and sensible shows. Google Assistant by no means made any cash, although. The {hardware} was all offered at price, the software program was given away to companions, and the continued prices of voice processing piled up. There was by no means any extra income to pay for the Google Assistant within the type of advertisements. Amazon is in the identical boat with its Alexa: Nobody has discovered find out how to make voice assistants worthwhile.
Since Google Assistant is a cash pit, The Info beforehand reported that Google plans to “make investments much less in creating its Google Assistant voice-assisted seek for automobiles and for gadgets not made by Google, together with TVs, headphones, smart-home audio system, sensible glasses and smartwatches that use Google’s Put on.” The concept is for Google to double down by itself {hardware}, which, in line with the earlier report, is what Google thinks will present the most effective safety towards regulators threatening the corporate’s search offers on the iPhone and Android companion gadgets. “We will tackle the iPhone” is seemingly the hard-to-believe mindset at Google proper now, in line with this report.
Making the next-gen Assistant unique to the Pixel 9 would fall into this class. Presumably, the continued cash downside would then be solved, or at the least accounted for, within the gross sales of cellphone {hardware}. The present Google Assistant was initially unique to the primary Pixel and unfold out to Google’s companions, however The Info’s reporting makes it look like that is not the plan this time (although that might at all times change). Nobody is aware of what is going to occur to Google AI assistant No. 1 (Google Assistant) when AI assistant No. 2 launches, however killing it off appears like a possible consequence. It might even be a strategy to minimize prices and get Google Assistant off individuals’s gadgets.
The issue with doubling down on {hardware} is that Google {Hardware} is a small division that has beforehand been unable to assist this sort of ambition. Going again to that quote about third-party gadgets, there aren’t any Google automobiles, TVs, or sensible glasses (the report says sensible glasses are being labored on, although). Some years, Google’s current {hardware} is not essentially superb. In different years, lengthy occasions will go by when Google does not replace some product traces, leaving them for useless (laptops, tablets). Google {Hardware} can also be often solely accessible in about 13 international locations, which is a tiny sliver of the world. Being on third-party gadgets protects you from all this. Beforehand, Google’s energy was the supply of its ecosystem, and also you give that up for those who make all the things unique to your {hardware}.
