Google I/O: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: an Empirical Review of Google’s Robotic AI for iOS and Android

The artificial intelligence gadgets that were supposed to help us save ourselves from our phones aren’t any better than we already are, and no one was fooled into believing the Humane AI pin or the Rabbit R1 would help us. Hot Gadget Spring is over and developer season is upon us, starting with Google I/O this coming Tuesday.

It’s also a critical time for the mobile operating system. There was a major re-org in which the hardware team and theAndroid team were together for the first time. The directive is clear: to run full speed ahead and put more AI in more things. The model of not preferring products from Google was the foundation of the OS, though that model began shifting as hardware and software teams collaborated more closely. Now, the wall is gone and the AI era is here. And if the past 12 months have been any indication, it’s going to be a little messy.

I see that it’s going to change the way I use my phone when I return to Gemini. It can memorize a dinner recipe and talk me through the steps as I’m cooking. When I want to know if figs are killed wasp parts, or not, it is possible to give me the answer to the question, rather than asking the wrong one. It can tell me which Paw Patrol toy I’m holding, for Pete’s sake.

Gemini launched as an AI-fueled alternative to the standard Google Assistant a little over three months ago, and it didn’t feel quite ready yet. On the first day, it was unable to access or set a reminder. Google has added those functions since then, but it still doesn’t support third-party media apps like Spotify. Google Assistant has supported Spotify for most of the last decade.

Google I/O Kicks Off at 10AM PT / 1PM ET (Thursday, May 14th), 10:00 AM PT (1PM ET)

You can now buy a new, cheaper, and magnetic speaker dock, even if you aren’t a fan of the original version, as long as you pre-paid for the Pixel 8A, so it doesn’t seem likely that anyone will be focusing on new hardware this year. The new products that the company could tease include thePixel 9, which is already leaking all over the place, as well as the Pixel 2, which is also currently leaking.

That kind of thing could be bad news for devices like the Rabbit R1 and the Human Ai Pin, which each recently launched and struggled to justify their existence. At the moment, the only advantage they maybe sort of have is that it’s kind of hard (though not impossible) to pull off using a smartphone as an AI wearable.

I/O could also see the debut of a new, more personal version of its digital assistant, rumored to be called “Pixie.” The assistant with the help of the Gemini-powered one is expected to integrate features like taking pictures of objects and learning how to use them.

Google will probably also focus on ways it plans to turn your smartphone into more of an AI gadget. That will lead to more generativeAI features for their apps. It’s been working on AI features that help with dining and shopping or finding EV chargers in Google Maps, for instance. Google is also testing a feature that uses AI to call a business and wait on hold for you until there’s actually a human being available to talk to.

Google I/O kicks off on Tuesday, May 14th at 10AM PT / 1PM ET with a keynote talk. You can catch that on Google’s site or its YouTube channel, via the livestream link that’s also embedded at the top of this page. (There’s also a version with an American Sign Language interpreter.) Set a good amount of time aside for that; I/O tends to go on for a couple of hours.