The Google I/O 2024 keynote is over, and for those who’re focused on new methods Google can inject AI into its merchandise, you most likely assume you wish to see it for those who missed it. Actually, you do not.
The cool new options and merchandise are there. The issue is they’re buried below essentially the most boring and technical I/O keynote presentation ever. Except you are a developer who makes use of Google merchandise and the Google ecosystem, it simply wasn’t for you.
Usually, I might be the primary to level out that Google I/O is a developer convention that’s meant for builders to find out about growth. That is true, and for those who match this description, it’s best to discover a option to expertise it at the very least as soon as. On that entrance, Google I/O is superb.
However this was the keynote presentation. The a part of the week that’s purported to get the “common Joe and Jane” excited concerning the future in order that they need to make use of the cool new merchandise builders could make utilizing all the brand new stuff.
Mix that with the truth that a lot of folks attending are there as press or influencers, and it makes the entire thing look actually bizarre this time. Members of the tech press are there to inform you about cool new telephones and the way Google is making issues higher, not clarify the variations between Gemini 7b and Gemini 2b.
In the event you slogged by means of it, you probably did see some cool, even futuristic stuff. Privateness considerations apart, Google can now combine into your life in methods it could not earlier than and even be helpful. An instance is Google’s Project Astra remembering the place a pair of glasses have been sitting. The times of a misplaced distant management are over as soon as this goes dwell.
For each good instance, although, we heard a phrase salad of issues that “regular” folks simply do not care about. Telling builders about multimodal inputs or that they’ve entry to 2 million tokens is ok. Telling everybody about it’s foolish as a result of virtually no one cares, or most may not even perceive what it means.
Common folks, and doubtless shareholders, too, aren’t focused on how the fudge is made. We solely care concerning the outcomes, whether or not they’re helpful enhancements, new merchandise, or new income streams for Google itself. In my previous life, I spent approach an excessive amount of time attempting to get computer systems and cameras to acknowledge the issues they have been seeing, and having this stage of tech would have been superb. However even I ended being about 20 minutes into this system.
The present began proper, with Pichai telling folks how Google has spent billions of {dollars} and over 10 years engaged on AI and its infrastructure. Google is competing with firms like OpenAI and may remind us that Google has an enormous benefit in relation to expertise and scale. It is how Google will “win” the AI race as soon as all of the mud settles.
It additionally ended proper. Understanding about how Google is managing the dangers that include AI and what its ideas are. That is extra vital than the merchandise themselves and Google has to steer by instance as a result of it’s about to dump AI on everybody who makes use of Google Search.
Every part in between was developer-focused. I do know I do know, developer convention, however the keynote can also be purported to get everybody enthusiastic about what’s coming. Google helped create this example the place a developer convention has morphed right into a press occasion. Abandoning the thought appears short-sighted.
That is not going to occur, and you are going to have to attend to see how any of these items issues in relation to you.
