Google Assistant Plans Generative AI Remodel: Report
Google Assistant will be remade with generative AI, according to an internal email first reported by Axios. The tech giant will employ large language models (LLMs) to power Google Assistant, likely similar to those fueling Google Bard’s AI, and the company has begun layoffs and restructuring its departments accordingly.
Generative Google Assistant
The changes to Google Assistant are already starting with the mobile edition of the voice assistant. The plans for Google Assistant have led to layoffs for some employees and a shift in position for several others. According to the email, the Services and Surfaces teams are being combined, with the mobile division and natural language processing teams operating separately. Google’s Speech division will work with Google Assistant but also be employed for other products.
“Since we launched Assistant seven years ago, we’ve built great experiences for the hundreds of millions of people who use it every month. And we’ve heard people’s strong desire for assistive, conversational technology that can improve their lives. As a team, we need to focus on delivering high-quality, critical product experiences for our users. We’ve also seen the profound potential of generative AI to transform people’s lives and see a huge opportunity to explore what a supercharged Assistant, powered by the latest LLM technology, would look like,” Google vice president Peeyush Ranjan and director of product Duke Dukellis wrote in the email. “We remain deeply committed to Assistant and we are optimistic about its bright future ahead.”
Bard Boom
Though the email doesn’t drill into specifics of how Google Assistant will change thanks to generative AI, the revamp fits with how Google has outlined its vision for the technology. Google Bard has been front and center for much of the year, starring in this year’s Google I/O developer conference with new features and access points. More recently, Google Bard saw a massive expansion of language options, the addition of image prompts, and, most relevantly to the Google Assistant plans, voice responses. In other words, Bard is able to do a lot of what Google Assistant had been made for. And though Google Assistant added new voice options earlier this year, it’s mostly been discussed for what it has closed down, particularly the sunsetting of Google Conversational Actions in favor of Android apps. Infusing generative AI into Google Assistant is the logical next step, though how well it will compete as a voice assistant or a generative AI tool remains to be seen.
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