Google launched a group of AI updates and new releases at its I/O occasion Tuesday, together with Challenge Astra, an AI agent that may perceive and recall objects in the actual world via your telephone digicam.
At one level within the demo, the consumer places on some prototype sensible glasses and continues the dialog with the AI agent — which instantly triggered some to invest that Google Glass may make a return.
“Challenge Astra shines when you will have a kind issue like glasses,” Pichai instructed CNBC. “We’re engaged on prototypes.”
Zuckerberg has mentioned gross sales of the glasses have exceeded expectations, and the corporate has expanded the lineup. Throughout Meta’s first-quarter earnings name, the CEO mentioned he thought the glasses had “the power to be a reasonably significant and rising platform” before he anticipated.
Amazon additionally launched its personal model of sensible glasses in 2019. The Alexa-enabled Echo Frames promote for about $250 and supply comparable perks as AirPods, permitting customers to hearken to music, hear incoming notifications, and ask inquiries to its Alexa digital assistant.
Different wearable AI devices have not fared as nicely. The $699 Humane AI Pin, which additionally requires a further $24 month-to-month subscription, has been criticized for its restricted capabilities. The corporate, and different AI-dedicated gadgets — face the problem of convincing those who the gadget presents options customers could not discover in a smartphone.
Google cofounder Sergey Brin did not discourage the concept when he was interviewed by reporters following the occasion.
Brin, who stepped down as president of the corporate in 2019, instructed reporters on the convention that Challenge Astra is the “good {hardware}” for AI-powered glasses, in accordance to a CNET report.
“It is humorous, as a result of it is like the proper {hardware},” Brin mentioned. “It is just like the killer app now, 10 years later,” referring to the concept of an AI agent working on sensible glasses like those the corporate launched a decade in the past.
Brin confirmed off Google Glass onstage at Google I/O 2012, showcasing their video seize means.
Google first launched the sensible glasses to a choose quantity of testers in 2013 earlier than rolling gross sales out extra extensively in 2014. Managed by voice command or the touchpad alongside its facet, the $1500 Google Glass Explorer Version may do issues like ship texts or seize photographs and video.
Google Glass existed for almost 10 years, with the corporate launching two Enterprise editions earlier than the corporate stopped promoting the glasses altogether.
However they famously flopped, failing to achieve traction primarily as a result of the product lacked a so-called killer app that may make the glasses essential. Critiques weren’t type, both. Customers complained about brief battery life, gradual importing, poor digicam high quality, and spotty voice recognition. Others did not like the concept of being recorded out in public.
10 years later, Brin mentioned he nonetheless thinks the shape issue of Google Glass was “fairly cool.”
“Sadly, we form of tousled on the timing,” he mentioned, in accordance to a Bloomberg report. “I form of want I timed it a bit higher.”
Brin mentioned “hands-free is the concept,” and pointed to different firms’ AI efforts in making wearable clips and comparable gadgets that permit customers to work together with AI extra inconspicuously, in response to the report.
“Loads of stuff you need commentary on: You are cooking or performing some sport, otherwise you need this factor that can assist you,” Brin mentioned, in response to Bloomberg. “It is awkward to do it along with your arms additionally holding your telephone.”
Sergey is not the one one hinting in regards to the return of Google Glass. In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai teased the doable return of the gadget — or at the least sensible glasses of some type — built-in with a Challenge Astra AI agent.
Google’s rival Meta is the chief in wearable AI gadgets in the meanwhile, because of its sudden hit with the Meta Ray-Bans, which begin at $299. The glasses haven’t any screens, however they do have cameras and audio system, permitting you to work together with Meta’s AI assistant and seize photographs and video, together with figuring out objects or places in entrance of the consumer.
JOSH EDELSON/AFP through Getty Photos
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