Google now has plans to step up its introduction of AI products in the wake of highly popular technology competition, such as the AI chatbot ChatGPT developed by OpenAI, according to The New York Times.
Google, which is run by the parent company Alphabet has been cautious about adding artificial intelligence-based technology to its service lineup. However, it now has plans to announce more than 20 AI-powered projects throughout 2023, the publication added.
The plans to transition toward AI were couched in its announcement of the recent layoff of 12,000 Google employees.
Google is already known to have invested heavily in artificial intelligence. However, the Times also indicated that Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai enlisted the advice of company founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who stepped back from active roles as of 2019. They were reportedly involved in all-hands meetings with executives in December 2022, where they were able to “approve plans and pitch ideas,” The Verge reports.
Google’s AI products coming down the pike could potentially be announced at its I/O developers conference in May. Primarily, the brand might showcase a demo of its own AI chatbot, which will have a focus on ethics and information accuracy.
The Times report also indicates Google’s plans to announce an image studio that can generate and edit images, a browser called MakerSuite that includes tools for businesses to create AI prototypes, and several coding tools. One is called PaLM-Coder 2, which works similarly to Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot. The other is called Colab + Android Studio and works for building smartphone apps.
Google’s prior concerns were that pushing too hard on AI could negatively affect the industry’s view of the brand, but now the company appears to be worried about being left behind. In addition to the ChatGPT chatbot, many text-to-image generators have caught the internet’s attention in recent weeks, as have a number of AI-powered productivity platforms.
Other big tech brands have also stated their intent to showcase AI on their legacy products and services. Microsoft has reported on its plans to work with the GPT-3 language to potentially implement AI features into its Office Suite, including Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint.
Speech-to-text apps have flooded the App Store, making it easier than ever to type on our Macs with just our voice. I have previously covered one such app called TypeWhisper. However, there has been a dearth of good text-to-speech models, and most of the good ones are locked behind a subscription.
Ollama, an open-source app that lets you run local AI models on your computer, wants to change that. It works on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and your prompts are never stored or used for training.
Did you think hitting delete on your AI chatbot conversation actually makes it disappear? Georgia Tech researchers just proved that's not entirely true. They have built a forensic tool called ORISA that can dig deleted conversations from your phone and even rebuild them into a working chatbot session you can keep talking to.
How can ORISA bring deleted AI conversations back?
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).