Syed Imran Haider 
On Tuesday, Alphabet Inc, showed how it is working on artificial intelligence (AI) across its various businesses. This includes an improved Gemini chatbot, along with search engine improvements, for competing with AI rivals.
The competition
The public was dazzled in 2022 by the launch of Open AI’s ChatGPT, a company backed by Microsoft. This launch has threatened the long-reign of Google over AI and online search.
Therefore, these new announcements are part of the Google parent’s efforts to give its products a boost.
Amongst the latest salvos is the launch of Project Astra, a prototype. This is an addition to the company’s family of Gemini 1.5 AI models named Flash.
It is cheaper and faster and can talk to users in real-time about whatever they might capture on their smartphone cameras.
Sundar Pichai was asked if Google’s profitable business could be at risk due to AI updates. The chief executive of Google called it a moment of opportunity and growth.
The product announcements were made in Mountain View, California at the company’s annual I/O developer event.
This was after rival OpenAI also conducted a showcase a day earlier, albeit a shorter one, where the focus was on ChatGPT.
The projects
The company showcased how ChatGPT can respond to any visual or written prompt with human-like intonations. Sam Altman, the CEO of the startup, called the software the AI seen in movies.
At times, similar ground had been covered by Google’s news. This highlights the intense competition between the two AI developers.
Google DeepMind is the AI unit of Alphabet Inc. It has been working on building technology capable of carrying out day-to-day tasks on behalf of consumers.
Project Astra is an outcome of this project. This tool is able to draw conclusions about the world through the use of a smartphone camera.
During Google I/O, a demo video was shown in which Project Astra was deployed by a user for identifying a speaker.
They also used it for locating glasses that had been left in a different part of the room.
The improvements
The company also shared the possibility of pairing Project Astra with a newer version of its Google Assistant.
It has been termed as Gemini Live and this text and voice aide would sound more natural than its predecessor.
Google DeepMind’s CEO, Demis Hassabis, talked about Project Astra. He stated that their aim is to develop a universal AI agent for helping in everyday life.
Video generation is another area where Google demonstrated how it is facing off against rivals. It talked about an AI model named Veo.
A preview has been made available to approved creators and is capable of spinning 1080p-resolution videos.
Donald Glover, a filmmaker, has been given access to Veo. OpenAI has also reached out to Hollywood executives with its own film-conjuring software.
Google’s Gemini Pro 1.5 model that can make sense of huge amounts of data has also seen improvements.
The AI would now be capable of answering questions when provided with an hour of video or thousands of pages of text.
