CIOInsider India Magazine

Time and again, Google’s effort to serve exceptional web surfing experience to users using artificial intelligence (AI) has been keeping its empire alive when it comes to the global search engine market, with a market share standing at 85.55 percent as of December 2021, according to Statista’s report. The tech giant’s other services and products also mirror the capabilities of what AI can do in the way it is used, and there’s no grandeur of a show than its annual I/O (Input/Output) event. Every year, new products and updates are introduced at the event, projecting the tech giant’s commitment to bringing out the potential of the latest technologies with AI in particular. Here’s what Google presented at its conference this year.

Google Pixel 6A
The Google Pixel 6A has a 6.1-inch FHD+ OLED display with a refresh rate of 90Hz. The front camera is housed in a punch-hole cutout in the center of the device. Similar to the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, the phone's back has a horizontally aligned camera bar that spans the whole of the phone. The Pixel 6A is powered by a Tensor GS101 chipset, with 6GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB storage, stations a 12.2MP main camera and a 12MP ultrawide camera, single 8MP for the selfie camera. Additionally, it has brought in Magic Eraser and Nightsight as software features for its camera. The smartphone possesses a 4,306mAh battery, and it comes with stereo features as well.

Google Pixel Buds Pro
Powered by a new custom audio processor, the Pixel Buds Pro now promises a noise-canceling ability. When customers want to hear what's going on outside, the earphones have a transparency option. The Pixel Buds Pro has a battery life of 11 hours or seven hours with ANC turned on. The new earbuds' integration with Google Assistant will also be a highlight. Spatial Audio will be added to the earphones through an update later this year. If you lose your Pixel Buds Pro, you can use Google's Find My Device app to track them down.

Google Wallet
It can store payment cards, boarding passes, loyalty cards, student IDs, immunization passes, and much more as a digital wallet service. As it supports a larger number of digital cards than the latest version of Google Pay, consumers in the US and Singapore will be able to utilize both systems. Meanwhile, when the new Google Wallet launches this summer, the rest of the world will be pushed away from the old Google Pay app.

AI Test Kitchen
Google offers three demos in the AI Test Kitchen. The first, dubbed 'Imagine It,' allows users to suggest a conversation topic, and Google's language processing model responds with ‘imaginative and pertinent descriptions’ about the topic. The second, dubbed 'Talk About It,' keeps the language model on track, which can be difficult. The third model, dubbed 'List It Out,' will propose a to-do list, things to remember, or pro-tips for a certain task.

Pathways Language Model (PaLM)
PaLM is a novel natural language processing and artificial intelligence paradigm. It is Google's largest model to date, having been trained on 540 billion parameters.

For the time being, the model can answer Math word problems or explain a joke, owing to Google's ‘chain-of-thought prompting,’ which allows it to break down multi-step tasks into a sequence of intermediary phases.

The AI model answering questions in both Bangla and English was one example given with PaLM. For example, when Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai queried the model about popular pizza toppings in New York City, the model responded in Bangla, despite PaLM's lack of experience with the language. Google hopes to apply these skills and strategies to a wider range of languages and jobs.

Multisearch on Lens
Google also unveiled new Lens Multisearch features, which will allow users to complete searches using only an image and a few words. Users will also be able to add ‘near me’ to a photo or screenshot to view nearby eateries or businesses that sell fashion, home products, and food, among other things.

“In the Google app, you can search with images and text at the same time – similar to how you might point at something and ask a friend about it,” the company said.

Users will be able to use Multisearch to pan their camera and rapidly gain insights about several things in a larger scene, thanks to a feature called ‘scene exploration.’ Users will be able to use Multisearch to pan their camera and rapidly gain insights about several things in a larger scene, thanks to a feature called ‘scene exploration.’

Immersive Google Maps
Google has revealed a new method to use its Maps app that is more immersive. The company combined billions of Street View and aerial photographs to create a rich, digital model of the planet using computer vision and AI. Users may now immerse themselves in a neighborhood, landmark, restaurant, or popular location using the new immersive view. Assamese, Bhojpuri, Konkani, Sanskrit, and Mizo are among the 24 new languages added to Google Translate. These languages were added using a technique known as 'Zero-Shot Machine Translation,' in which a machine learning model only observes monolingual text and learns to translate without ever seeing an example.

The tech giant also announced a slew of safety features such as an ‘Account Status Safety’ feature, automatic 2-factor authentication (2FA), and a new ‘virtual credit card’ option for users. Further, it said it would also remove search results that have to do with the user’s personal information.

Account Safety Status
The feature will be added to the user’s app in their Google Account setting. The user’s profile page will be updated with this feature through a yellow alert icon, which will flag actions a user should take to secure their account.

Automatic 2-Factor Verification
Users will be automatically admitted into the 2-step verification by Google. This feature is said to enhance the security of one’s Google account while reducing phishing risks.

Phishing Protection in Google Workspace
Google is also bolstering phishing and malware protection that protect Gmail to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Personal results in search
Under the company’s updated policies, this will ensure a smooth removal request that contains the user’s personal contact details such as phone numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. This feature is said to be released this year through the Google App, and once downloaded, the user can access this feature by clicking the three dots next to Google Search results.

Virtual Cards
This feature has been created to provide a safe shopping experience on Chrome and Android. To enter payment details at checkout, these virtual cards use autofill, and they will add an extra layer of security by replacing the actual card number with a distinct, virtual number. His card will save the time of manually entering card details such as CVV at the checkout. The features can be accessed from pay.google.com. Those with eligible cards will be enabled a virtual credit card option as well. The card will allow users to check recent virtual card transactions.

My Ad Center
Users will now be able to have more control over the way they experience advertisements. Google will allow users to choose which ads they prefer to see on YouTube, Search, and one’s Discover feed. They will still be able to choose while blocking and reporting ads they do not wish to see. Meanwhile, Google said that it would launch more ad privacy settings by the end of the year.

Project Shield
Responding to the Russia-Ukraine situation and the ongoing cyberwar, Google said, “Threat Analysis Group (TAG), for example, has been tracking critical cyber activity to help inform Ukraine, neighbouring countries in Europe, and others of active threat campaigns in relation to the war.” the tech giant said that it had expanded its Project Shield to safeguard the websites of 200+ Ukrainian government entities, news outlets and more.