Google I/O Developer Conference Preview: Encountering OpenAI and Microsoft, the war is about to break out

Finance Associated Press

2024-05-11 17:54Published on the official account of Cailianpress, a subsidiary of Shanghai Poster Industry Group

Finance Associated Press, May 11 (edited by Shi Zhengcheng) Probably after OpenAI released the "Wensheng Video" model Sora during the Spring Festival this year, there has been no flower work in the AI field that can excite the "melon-eating masses" for several months.

But it is not difficult to see from the schedules of major tech giants that the long-dormant AI track is about to usher in a wave of "mid-year carnival" - OpenAI will hold a live event next Monday to demonstrate a series of "like magic" ChatGPT and GPT-4 updates. Microsoft will hold its Build developer conference in a week's time, and after a short break, Apple's WWDC will be served to Chinese investors along with hot meat dumplings.

Sandwiched between the old AI giants, the founder and catch-up of the current wave of AI Google, after the pains of the past year, Sundar Pichai, Jemis Hassabis and other Google management need to prove to the world that as the only large technology company in the field of AI that can still compete with Microsoft, Google is still holding its ground.

AI, AI, and AI

As the centerpiece of the annual developer conference, the I/O 2024 keynote will take place on May 14 at 10 a.m. PT (15 a.m. EDT).

At the Shoreline Amphitheater near Google's Mountain View headquarters, investors will hear about updates to artificial intelligence, search engines, Android 15, and how these new features will be presented on newly launched mobile devices.

In 2016 and 2017, Pichai shouted the slogan of shifting from "mobile first" to "AI first" in his I/O speeches, and emphasized "rethinking all products and applying machine learning". Even so, after ChatGPT was launched a year and a half ago, Google was widely questioned as a laggard.

(Source: Google)

After a whole year of catching up, Google has launched the Gemini 1.0 and 1.5 series models, among which the most capable 1.5 Pro has shown the potential to surpass GPT in terms of context window length and multimodal capabilities. But for the capital markets to recognize Google's "AI-first" status, the company still needs to release a series of transformative and widely available products.

At last year's I/O, Google highlighted the chatbot Bard (later renamed Gemini) and the integration of a range of artificial intelligence into various products and services, such as maps and photo editing tools developed in partnership with Adobe.

It's clear that Google will be desperate to prove that its Gemini has surpassed OpenAI/Microsoft's GPT/Copilot at next week's conference, so we may see a new version of Gemini next week, as well as deeper embedding of the platform across products and applications.

Google has previously said it will swap out the Google mobile assistant for a Gemini-based chatbot. It's unclear whether Google is ready to roll out such a change at this I/O. For now, at least, Gemini's app and web performance on mobile devices is still lackluster, and it will need to be overhauled quite a bit to replace the venerable Google Mobile Assistant.

On the search engine side, Google announced its AI-based generative search experience (SGE) a year ago, and this year's focus will be on whether Google thinks the service is mature enough to exit the lab preview program. If the era of search engines providing answers directly (instead of providing a bunch of links for users to click on themselves) has officially arrived, this will be a profound change for both consumers and content publishers.

Google's Maps app, meanwhile, has been testing AI search to find destinations through conversations. As far as map application scenarios are concerned, the need for this type of functionality is not so common.

Finally, there is also the possibility of leaking Apple's WWDC news ahead of time at Google's developer conference. According to the latest news, Apple may be close to reaching a partnership with OpenAI to use external AI in iOS, while also in talks with Google about introducing Gemini.

The core question is how these external AIs will be represented in iOS. And Google's launch of a series of Android AI features next week could hint at what Apple is brewing.

At present, in the Android system, the main use of AIGC is Gemini Nano driven input method keyboard automatic reply, SMS magic writing, summary summary and retouching. With the upgrading of chips and software, the design of mobile phone operating systems based on artificial intelligence has also been put on the agenda. For example, what should the home screen, lock screen, and notification bar look like in the AI era? This is also the answer that Google and Apple need to hand in in the next month.

In addition to the AI, Android 15, which is currently in developer preview, also showcases improvements such as satellite connectivity, camera controls, and a privacy sandbox.

Hardware stands aside

Probably not quite the same as in previous years, Google shouldn't be prepared to leave much time for hardware devices this year.

After the launch of the Pixel Fold in I/O last year, the device could face a major upgrade until the fall with the latest Pixel 9 phone. At the same time, in order to avoid the news of the new phone release being "buried" in a bunch of AI news, Google has officially announced the latest mid-range Pixel 8a phone this week, which will officially go on sale on the day of the I/O conference.

(Source: Google Play)

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