Google Announced “Gemini Intelligence” at the Android Show: I/O Edition.
Google’s artificial intelligence has gone through several stages of development. Initially, Google launched “Bard” as a direct competitor to ChatGPT. Soon after, the company rebranded itself as “Gemini,” encompassing everything from a chatbot to LLM programs. During The Android Show: I/O Edition, Google unveiled its latest AI offering: Gemini Intelligence. While the name may sound suspiciously similar to another company’s AI suite, Gemini Intelligence offers a number of unique features—at least according to Google.
New Gemini Intelligence Agency Capabilities
Google positions “Gemini Intelligence” as an agent-like assistant. While the company already offers agent-like features like ordering a ride through Uber or takeout through DoorDash , the new interface is intended to offer more capabilities. For example, Google claims that Gemini can reserve you a front-row seat on a spinning bike or order the necessary textbooks for a class by finding the course syllabus in your Gmail inbox.
Google also promotes Gemini’s contextual image display feature for automation. For example, you could open a shopping list in your notes app and then ask Gemini to add items to your cart. Or, you could take a photo of a travel brochure found in your hotel lobby and ask Gemini to find a tour for your group that matches the brochure’s description.
Gemini Intelligence offers a more advanced autocomplete feature.
Autofill is one of those features I definitely take for granted. It’s not always perfect (please don’t enter my phone number into a credit card form), but when it works, it saves a ton of time when filling out electronic documents. According to Google, Gemini Intelligence is raising the bar for autofill, aiming to make it possible to fill in almost any information on any form.
Travel is an example: imagine you’re buying a plane ticket and need to fill in your personal information. While a traditional autofill system can help with your name, phone number, email address, and so on, you typically need to find your passport (or a photo of it) to fill out this section. Google claims that Gemini Intelligence can use Personal Intelligence to autofill sensitive data, such as your passport information. You’ll see a button labeled “Passport,” which, when clicked, automatically fills in all of this information.
Google states that this feature is “entirely voluntary,” so you can decide for yourself whether to connect to Gemini Intelligence in such cases. You can also disable it at any time.
Rambler improves dictation function on Android.
Gemini Intelligence also aims to improve dictation, particularly by refining our often less-than-polished thoughts. To that end, Google is introducing a new feature called “Rambler”: when you dictate to Gemini Intelligence, instead of capturing all your “uhs” and “ums,” Rambler attempts to transcribe only what you intend to say. This even applies when you alert the AI to an error. If you say something like, “On my grocery list, I need three bananas, one orange juice, a gallon of milk (oh, wait, never mind, I have milk), and a loaf of bread,” Rambler will only transcribe, “On my grocery list, I need three bananas, one orange juice, and a loaf of bread.” You can also ask Rambler to adjust the formatting of your dictation to turn that grocery list into a bulleted list with emoji.
According to Google, there’s a visual difference between Rambler and the standard dictation feature, so you should always be aware when it’s enabled. The company states that audio is only used for real-time transcription and isn’t saved afterwards. Google also notes that Rambler supports multiple languages, so you can use dictation by switching between languages without having to start and stop dictation.
Gemini Intelligence allows you to create your own widgets.
The feature that most intrigued me was this: Gemini Intelligence will supposedly give users the ability to create custom widgets for their home screen. Instead of waiting for app developers to create widgets that may or may not do what you need, you can ask Gemini Intelligence to create them for you.
Google claims the “Create Widget” feature lets you ask Gemini to create widgets based on queries like “show upcoming concerts at Madison Square Garden,” “display wind speed and precipitation for Golden, Colorado,” or “suggest new cooking recipes at the beginning of each week.” If the feature works as advertised, you’ll be able to create custom widgets that perfectly match your needs and interests.