Google Assistant as we knew it is on the way out. Well, at least its guts.
Late last year, Google added AI capabilities from its chatbot Bard to Google Assistant, allowing the virtual helper to make sense of images and draw on data in emails, documents and more. Now, the company's giving users the choice of replacing the AI models driving Google Assistant's conversational skills with Gemini, Google's family of newer GenAI tech.
Soon, via a new Gemini app for Android devices (which replaces the existing Google Assistant app) and an updated Google app on iOS (set to roll out in the coming weeks), users will be able to access a new Gemini-powered Google Assistant experience. It'll be mobile-only; Google Assistant devices like Nest and Home speakers and displays won't see changes just yet.
The experience comes in the form of an overlay that acts as a frontend for the Gemini models and provides contextual recommendations and suggestions, Sissie Hsiao, Google Assistant VP, told TechCrunch in a press briefing.
"This overlay allows you to do some really interesting things with Gemini," she said. "For example, you can generate a caption based on a picture that you've already taken that's behind the overlay. You might be reading an article, and bringing up the overlay allows you to not only understand the article more deeply, but ask questions about the article that you're reading now."
