Gemini everywhere at once
Agentic AI rolling out in more Google products this year
Google is going all-in on agentic AI this year. That’s hardly a surprise, but we certainly saw the full extent of Google’s agentic AI push from the announcements coming out of its annual Google I/O developer conference earlier today.
Basically, almost every Google product that you’re encounter will be infused with AI. For example, YouTube will get something similar to the AI Overview in Google Search, but for videos. This Ask YouTube feature not only brings up videos matching your request, but lets you jump to the relevant portion. You can also ask follow-up questions and further refine your query.
Google Search itself has been revamped. It will use Google’s newest Gemini Flash 3.5 model for its AI Mode, while a new intelligent Search box offers a chatbot-like experience, lets you upload images and files, and comes with an image generator. But that’s not all.
Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers will be able to create their own AI-powered search agents and release them into the internet to track news and updates related to the query. Now, I have always wanted an easy way to track when my favourite authors release their next book, without having to follow them on social media. A search agent sounds perfect here.
The Gemini app is also updated with a new look, though the agentic part, dubbed Gemini Spark, can tap into Google apps to help users with menial tasks like managing your schedule, and decluttering your inbox. It will be available to Google AI Ultra users in the US in the coming weeks.
For those who are more inclined towards creating content with the help of AI, the new Gemini Omni multimodal AI model claims to be able to “create anything from any input”, though it’s starting with video first, with image and audio to follow. Omni can use images, audio, video and text as input for videos that are also “grounded in Gemini's real-world knowledge”, which I presume means an understanding of concepts like gravity.
And there’s more to come at Google I/O. Personally, I’m keen to find out more about Googlebooks at Google I/O, which seem like Chromebooks, but updated for the AI era. We got a teaser about Googlebooks last week, but details have been scarce.
We know it has a Magic Pointer, a new mouse gesture to instantly bring up Gemini, that you’ll be able to link your Android smartphone to run mobile apps and transfer files, that Google has partnered with all the major PC makers (Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo) to produce Googlebooks. But more mundane details like pricing and specs have yet to be revealed.
In short, I’m already feeling both excited and overwhelmed by all these powerful AI tools that will be widely available, and getting cheaper (Google AI Ultra plan now starts at S$100, down from US$250). Your imagination is the limit, and I fear mine is nothing to shout about.
This week, we wore a pair of Ray-Ban smart glasses powered by Meta AI, tested a Kickstarter-funded coffee maker that can make a cold brew in minutes, not hours, and tried out a doorbell camera from TP-Link that doesn’t require a cloud subscription.
Take photos and videos, ask for help from Meta AI, and listen to music from your glasses. That’s the promise of the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 AI smart glasses. But there are some annoyances, like how easy it is to accidentally trigger music playback when adjusting your hair to how Meta AI doesn’t remember your previous interactions, and cannot handle more complex requests.
Cold coffee in minutes without prepping in advance. That’s the key selling point of the Brezi Cold coffee maker, which uses Peltier tech to rapidly cool down the water during the extraction process. The machine is easy to use, with a nice OLED screen, touch controls and a tactile dial. It’s also low-maintenance, you just need to wash the dripper and drip tray after each use.
If you’re looking to hardwire your video doorbell camera — and avoid the hassle of charging the battery — the TP-Link Tapo D235 is a good option. It also has a microSD card slot to store video recordings on the device, making it optional to subscribe to cloud-based storage. Performance is enhanced if you go the hardwire route, though there’s still a built-in battery if you prefer that instead.