All New Artificial Intelligence Features Coming to Google Pixel 8
There was a lot to discuss at Wednesday’s Made by Google event , but the company’s main announcements were the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. While these new flagship smartphones feature new displays, cameras, and other new hardware improvements, it’s the new Tensor G3 chip that may be the most impressive. With this, Google is introducing a host of new AI features that you can take advantage of on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.
Best take
Best Take is likely to be the most talked about feature of the new Pixel phones, for better or worse. When taking multiple group photos at once, this feature allows you to select the best face of each person in the photo and include it in the final photo. Seriously.
It’s a quirky feature that shows how far technology has come. The group photo you post on Instagram isn’t reality: it’s mixed and matched so that no one blinks, sneezes, or looks upset. Sure, this might make bad group shots a thing of the past, but it makes me feel a little awkward.
Magic editor
You’re probably familiar with Magic Eraser, Google’s iconic feature that quickly removes unwanted elements from photos. Now the company is releasing Magic Editor, a new option that uses generative artificial intelligence to enhance the image as you wish. You can move an object from one area to another, customize the background using preset options, and fill in missing information with AI-generated images.
Magic Eraser improvements (Pixel 8 Pro)
Magic Eraser on Pixel 8 Pro can now remove larger elements and generate new pixels to fill empty areas.
Audio Magic Eraser
Audio Magic Eraser analyzes the audio in a video clip to identify the different sounds within and sort them into layers. You can then manipulate these layers to reduce annoying sounds and hear what you want to hear in the video. For example, if you’re recording a musician outdoors, you can use Audio Magic Eraser to reduce sounds such as wind, people talking, and traffic.
Call screen improvements
Call Screen is one of the best features of the Pixel, which uses an AI-powered voice assistant to literally screen your calls for you. In the future, Call Screen will be able to differentiate between a spam call (say, a post saying you’ve won an all-expenses-paid trip) and a legitimate call (say, a call from your airline representative about checking for an upcoming trip). In the last example, the AI voice assistant will tell the caller that they are trying to reach you, and then send you a message with a brief description of the situation and a number of options you can take, including picking up the phone, reporting the call as spam, or accepting the message.
This feature can also handle contextual calls, such as a call from a doctor’s office to confirm an appointment. The assistant will send you a simple resume, and you can click “Verify” to confirm it on your behalf. Later this year, these updates will also work on Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2 when paired with a Tensor-enabled Pixel phone.
Live broadcasts
When you write dictation messages, Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro can translate your words in real time. For example, if you want to share a message in Spanish, say it in English and your phone will translate it in time for you to hit send.
Read aloud
This new feature allows you to long press the power button to have your Pixel read a web page out loud to you.
Gboard
Gboard now uses artificial intelligence to correct typos, grammatical errors, and other errors that may occur while typing. You can simply click “More Corrections” to see what the AI thinks you missed.
If you choose the Pixel 8 Pro, you’ll also get better answer suggestions in Gboard. This particular feature will arrive in December.
Summarize
As a writer, I want you to read my articles from start to finish. But if you’re short on time, the Pixel 8 adds them up for you. Whenever you open a long article, you’ll find a new Summary button that uses artificial intelligence to break down the important points into an easy-to-read summary.
Video enlargement
Video Boost is another feature coming later this year, but it should prove interesting. It processes every frame of your video as you shoot it, adjusting parameters such as color, lighting, stabilization, and grain. It also uses night vision video to make dark scenes clearer. We won’t know how good this feature is until it arrives, but it sounds promising.
Registrar
After Pixel Drop in December, Recorder will support summarization on the Pixel 8 Pro device.
Zoom in
People have been screaming about “improvement” in movies and television for years. But Google wants to make it a reality: a new feature called Zoom Enhance intelligently enhances digitally zoomed photos right on the device, using artificial intelligence to sharpen blurry images when digitally zoomed. This will also appear in the December update.
Assistant with Bard
“Assistant with Bard” is exactly what it sounds like: Google has combined Google Assistant with its artificial chatbot Bard to create a more powerful digital assistant that is deeply integrated with the Google ecosystem. With its help, you can ask your assistant difficult questions, and he should answer the same. You can ask it to review the important emails you missed this week, and it will dive into your Gmail to get a summary of the highlights you missed.
One example on stage was when Assistant With Bard was asked to create a grocery list for a weekend trip for 10 people, with a bunch of snacks and a few smoothie recipes. The assistant returned with a detailed list of products, as well as smoothie recipes that can be made from them.
Like ChatGPT, Assistant With Bard also recognizes images. You can take a photo of something in the real world, and an assistant can answer questions about it.
The feature will soon be available to early testers and will roll out to Pixel 8 users in the coming months.