Google unveils new features as it redoubles generative AI efforts

Tech giant introduces updates across portfolio, including for Google Meet, Google Slides and Google Chat

Google is tapping into generative artificial intelligence to boost the capabilities of its cloud services. Reuters

Technology giant Google is redoubling its commitment to artificial intelligence by putting in place the most advanced versions of the technology on its user-focused platforms.

Google, whose parent company Alphabet is the world's largest internet company, is introducing generative AI updates across its portfolio, including for Google Meet, Google Slides and Google Chat at its annual Cloud Next conference this week in San Francisco.

The updates are a "major evolution" to the company's ecosystem – a series of interconnected applications and services, from the cloud and data centres to workspaces and its Android platform – and are "built for the future", Kristina Behr, vice president of product management for collaboration and apps at Google, said in a media round-table.

"We're fundamentally reshaping AI's role as your collaborative partner across workspace ... our cloud-native architecture and long history with AI meant that we were able to bring the power of Google's advanced large language models to workspace in record time," she said.

On Google Workspace, the company will place Duet AI "at the forefront of meetings and messages" with the new Take Notes for Me feature, which uses generative AI to act as a meeting assistant that captures notes, actions items and creates video snippets in real time.

Duet AI is a generative AI-powered collaborator introduced during May's I/O conference that offers capabilities, such as the ability to summarise text and generate images. It was first integrated into Google Cloud.

In cases when a user is unable to attend a meeting, Duet AI can attend on their behalf and a document will be sent to the user after the meeting.

On Google Slides, the company's presentation app, Duet AI will help users compose speaker notes based on the content in each slide, in addition to support for real-time teleprompting and language translation.

Google now supports more than 300 language pairs, having "invested significantly in chat to make it easier for teams to connect and collaborate everywhere", Ms Behr said.

Duet AI on Google Chat, meanwhile, will be a "real-time partner" that can provide updates, insights and proactive suggestions across a user's Workspace apps.

Also, Duet AI can be asked for a summary of recent conversations, as well as insights from the content of a user's Gmail and Google Drive accounts. Spaces in Google Chat will soon support up to 500,000 members.

The confidentiality and privacy of user data are ensured, with protection "kept intact and automatically applied" when using any of Google's services, Ms Behr said.

"As we embed Duet AI into Workspace, protecting the confidentiality and privacy of customer data continues to be our top priority ... customers can be rest assured that their interactions with Duet will stay within their organisation and their existing workspace," she said.

AI has long been used by businesses and enterprises to streamline their operations and help make workloads more efficient.

Its popularity soared with the introduction of generative AI, which rose to prominence thanks to ChatGPT, the language model-based sensation made by Microsoft-backed OpenAI capable of producing various kinds of data, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, 3D objects and videos.

That triggered a race between Microsoft and Google, which released Bard. It also led to X chief executive Elon Musk announcing xAI, prompted Apple to improve its Siri digital assistant and, overall, created a new battlefront in the tech sector.

Investors put more than $4.2 billion into generative AI start-ups in 2021 and 2022 through 215 deals after interest surged in 2019, recent data from CB Insights showed.

Globally, AI investments are projected to hit $200 billion by 2025 and could possibly have a bigger impact on gross domestic product, Goldman Sachs Economic Research said in a report this month.

"We’re at an exciting inflection point. We have an opportunity to make AI even more helpful for people, for businesses, for communities, for everyone," Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google and Alphabet, previously said.

"We’ve been applying AI to make our products radically more helpful for a while. With generative AI, we’re taking the next step."

Google also announced a collaboration with General Motors to use conversational AI in millions of vehicles made by the largest car maker in the US.

This followed the teaming up of Microsoft and Mercedes-Benz in June for testing ChatGPT in the German luxury car maker's fleet – the first such adoption of the technology in vehicles.

Additionally, global consulting firms, including Deloitte and Capgemini, have joined forces with Google to train more than 150,000 people in AI. They are also planning to triple their generative AI capacity for Google Cloud by 2025.

Other notable customers Google has won include rating agency Moody's Investors Service, capital market firm MSCI, German multinational Bayer and Japanese video game company Capcom. More announcements are expected at the Google Cloud Next conference.