Google Assistant—the firm’s digital companion and aid for performing simple tasks primarily on the Android operating system and other home automation devices—might get an important generative AI update in the coming months. With Google having made considerable progress with its Bard chatbot and language models like LaMDA and PaLM, the firm is looking to enhance some of its first AI offerings in its policy to continue producing consumer-facing AI tools. Having been around for over seven years, the Google Assistant app has been featured regularly on several devices and primarily performs everyday digital tasks based on the amount of context provided by the user. Now that technologies like natural language processing have become more efficient and powerful, the firm believes that it’s the right time to introduce advanced AI learnings to Google Assistant—which has so far been left out of the generative AI infusion.
The integration of Google’s generative AI protocols into the Assistant application will result in more organic conversations, better performance, improved latency, and enhanced efficiency. Large language models can massively enhance voice assistants leading to better user experience and improved reviews. While it was inevitable that newer AI technologies would be included in the extant AI assistant applications, the signal from Google indicates that better voice assistants on both handheld and other devices might be closer than experts had formerly theorized.
How Will the Google Assistant App Improve with Generative AI?
Google Assistant will be enhanced greatly due to the powers of generative AI.
Google’s Vice President and General Manager of Google Assistant—Sissie Hsiao—revealed a new and improved version of the voice assistant application during a Pixel Hardware event in October 2023, revealing a generative AI-infused app that would massively enhance user experience. While Google had released experimental applications like NotebookLM and extended Bard’s connectivity across Google’s productivity applications, Google Assistant—an inherently AI-based application—had so far been kept out of the loop. That’s not the case anymore, given that Hsiao promises a vast array of improvements to the application. Though there’s no clear picture of what the Google Assistant app might look like following the updates, there are credible speculations that can estimate the extent of enhancements to the application following these major overhauls. Among the most significant improvements according to the Vice President is that Google Assistant will now be multimodal, as opposed to a simplistic voice assistant that can only respond to commands with requisite actions. By analyzing and making sense of images, Google Assistant will now be able to be more than just a mechanical voice carrying out mundane tasks on a supported device.
In addition to the multimodal feature, Google Assistant’s NLP features will also allow it to perform basic to intermediate AI writing tasks such as writing emails and social media captions as well as taking down simple notes. Moreover, much like the functionalities of Bard and ChatGPT, Google Assistant might also be able to help users plan their trips and put together recipes from available ingredients. Despite these interesting possibilities, Google Assistant is not yet a fully formed application and is in its nascent stages. Hsiao admits that the firm is still not concrete about what form the application will take as development progresses and approaches completion. Presently, the application remains restricted to a few approved users and eventually will be functional only on mobile devices. There exists no news or reports of the upgrade being extended to home automation devices or other platforms that might support the voice assistant.
Google Generative AI and the Impact of Google Assistant’s Overhaul
Generative AI is bound to revolutionize automated assistants.
While generative AI has been a key phenomenon in technology during the past year, the true potential of LLMs is yet to be unlocked functionally. The Google Assistant app has been long promoted by the firm as a tool to simplify everyday tasks and make users’ digital experiences better. With Bard being progressively improved and enhanced with regular updates and extensions to its capabilities, Google intends to use these improvements and learnings from generative AI to create better applications to support the firm’s broader goals in the long run. The move also comes as competing firms like OpenAI have also begun transitioning models like GPT-4 to multimodal functionalities to create flexible AI solutions for their clients. The applications of Google Assistant’s Bard integrated version are immense, with users potentially being able to make sense of the content they view on their phone in real time with generative AI assistance. This also includes tasks like shopping and searching.
While all of these updates seem promising, Google also has its eye on AI safety and security, since drawbacks like hallucination and bias can adversely affect crucial applications like Google Assistant. The application will require an extensive round of checks and tests to ensure it does not end up making errors in responding to user queries as well as to ensure the application is sufficiently secure from attacks arising from hackers and other malicious actors. In the run-up to making voice assistants and AI tools more proficient in natural dialogue, there can be no compromise on quality. Google understands this aspect, given that Bard’s initial release faced a setback due to its hallucinatory response during the same. Though making the Google Assistant application’s responses foolproof might not be entirely realistic, the tech giant can ensure that it minimizes harmful responses from the chatbot, much like how its competitor Anthropic has done with Claude and Claude 2.
The Future of AI Assistants and the Generative AI Push
AI assistants have a promising future due to the enhancements in natural language processing.
As AI assistants become more powerful with the assistance of generative AI, people might alter their approach to handheld and other devices. While people already get most of their information from these technological aids, the arrival of generative AI in the form of multimodal digital assistance will further drive trust and belief in their AI helpers. While this might not be all that bad, it might still hamper one’s ability to question these tools even in cases of legitimate concern and error. While the adherence to responsible AI goals has become progressively more important, firms will have to adhere to newer techniques and methods when addressing concerns surrounding the development of full-blown AI voice assistants. Regardless, the potential of these technologies is immense, and progressive developments will reveal more details surrounding these up-and-coming enhancements to existing technologies.
FAQs
1. Does Google Assistant use Bard?
Google recently released a glimpse of Google Assistant powered by Bard to the public, indicating the firm’s intent to infuse generative AI into the voice assistant application.
2. What devices will the improved Google Assistant be available on?
Presently, Google intends to launch the enhanced Google Assistant only for handheld mobile devices.
3. Is the new Google Assistant available?
Google Assistant with enhancements from Bard is still in the early stages of development and is restricted to select users for testing.