Google is in the news again, this time for its I/O Keynote 2018. For the beginners, this annual developer conference is organised by Google every year to showcase the technical in-depth sessions that are mostly focussed on web building, mobile and enterprise applications with Google. Also included in the sessions are the open sources such as the Android, Chrome and the Chrome OS, the APIs etc. The first Keynote event of Google had been organised in 2008 and the I/O in the name stands for two meanings- Input/output as well as “Innovation in the Open”.
So, here are the highlights of the entire proceedings of the day’s event, brought to you by Sailor Bingo, known for a wide collection of online bingo games.
Google I/O Keynote 2018 – Key Highlights
1. Google Assistant Update
The company announced the ‘Continued Conversation” update to Google assistant, thus giving it a more natural feel. Also, a new feature has been added where you get to ask multiple questions within the same request instead of having to repeat them several times.
2. AI Boost for Google Photos
Google Photos has already made your job of correcting photographs much easy with the built-in editing tools and the AI-powered features for automatically creating photo collages, movies and many other features. With the update, you could expect to see more AI-powered features like Black and White colourisation of photos, brightness correction and suggested rotations.
3. Smart Displays for YouTube and Google Assistant
Google’s first Smart Displays powered by Google Assistant and YouTube are expected to be launched in July and the company is known to have invested some resources into building a visual- first version of the Assistant.
4. Google Assistant- Google Maps combo
With the addition of the Google Assistant to the already smart Google Maps, you could surely expect a smarter and more personalised recommendation, especially for the local places. This integration would also include combining the camera, computer vision technology and Google Maps with Street View.
5. The rebranding of Google’s Research Division
Just before the Keynote had begun, Google had announced the rebranding of its Research Division to Google AI. This move shows Google’s focus to have increased its R&D on Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing and Neural Networks.
6. The unveiling of the ML Kit
Google has finally unveiled their Machine Learning Kit which is a new software development kit that enables the developers to integrate their pre-built Google-provided machine learning models into apps. These models are known to support Facial Detection, Text Recognition, Bar Code Scanning, Image Labelling and many more other smart features.
7. An AI-powered redesign for Google
Google is also planning to leverage AI in a revamped version of Google News by redesigning and AI-powering their news destination app. This app would construe elements from other Google apps such as the digital magazine app, Newsstand and YouTube. It also introduces new features like “Newscasts”, “Full Coverage” to help the users to get a more holistic view of news stories.
