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I ranked the AI features announced at Google I/O from most useful to gimmicky

May, 16, 2024 Hi-network.com
Google IO 2024
Kerry Wan/

At its annual developer event, Google I/O, Google unveiled many new AI products, features, and upgrades. How many? AI was mentioned 120 times during the two-hour keynote, as CEO Sundar Pichai unabashedly admitted by the end of it. Some of these new offerings provide AI solutions to common problems, while others, although impressive, are unlikely to add much value to our everyday lives. Not mine, at least.

Also: 9 biggest announcements at Google I/O 2024: Gemini, Search, Project Astra, and more

To help you sort through all of the announcements and identify which can positively impact your everyday life, I've rounded up what I found to be the most impressive AI features, ranked from most likely to optimize your everyday life to least likely. 

1. Ask Photos

This feature was mentioned so briefly during the keynote that you could have easily missed it. However, Ask Photos has the potential to benefit most people by introducing a Gemini chatbot into Google Photos that can help users sort through their photos. 

Also:This subtle (but useful) AI feature was my favorite Google I/O 2024 announcement

With the Ask Photos feature, users can describe what photos or content from their album they want to find. Google Photos will find it for them in their camera roll, even packaging together multiple photos when necessary, as seen in the demo below. 

On the I/O stage, Google CEO Sundar Pichai gave two examples that showcased the feature's usefulness. In the first example, a user asked, "What is my license plate number?" Then, Gemini pulled the number, using context to identify which car belonged to the user. In the second, a user who wanted to see photos of their daughter's progress as a swimmer over time had Gemini automatically package the highlights for them by simply asking it to. 

With the amount of photos we take and save daily, this type of assistance in sorting, organizing, and packaging content is extremely helpful. Google shared that the feature will be coming to Google Photos later this summer and even teased that more capabilities are to come.

2. Gmail Q&A feature

This feature was also discussed only briefly near the keynote's end, making it easy to miss; however, it solves a real-world problem. During the Google Workspace portion of the keynote, the company announced three new features coming to Gmail on mobile, including Gmail Q&A. 

As the name implies, the Gmail Q&A feature enables users to chat with Gemini about the context of their emails within the Gmail mobile app, allowing them to ask specific questions about their inbox. 

Also: 5 exciting Android features Google just announced at I/O 2024

For example, during the example presented on the Google I/O stage, the user asked Gemini to compare roofer repair bids by price and availability. Gemini was then able to pull the information from several inboxes and display it for the user, as seen in the image below. 

Gmail Q&A with Gemini
Google

Because of my line of work (and my shopping habits), my inbox is flooded with emails daily. Having a tool that can conversationally answer questions about my multiple inboxes on my mobile phone is a game-changer, taking the assistance provided by email AI summarizers to the next level. The feature will be released to Google Lab users in late July, 

3. Project Astra/Gemini Live

One of the keynote's most impressive moments was when Google Deepmind played the video of its Project Astra, which showed an AI voice assistant that can help with visual prompts using the user's camera, as seen in the video below.  

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