Google goes all out on AI and launches its first…

Google goes all out on AI and launches its first foldable phone

Google has put artificial intelligence (AI) at the front and centre of its annual I/O event.

In a nutshell

CEO Sundar Pichai revealed plans to infuse Google’s dominant search engine with more advanced AI tech, which is in response to a threat to its long-established position as the web’s main gateway.

The gradual shift in how Google’s search engine runs is rolling out three months after Microsoft’s Bing search engine started to tap into technology similar to that which powers the artificially intelligent chatbot ChatGPT.

ChatGPT has created one of the tech world’s biggest buzzes since Apple released the first iPhone almost 16 years ago.

Bard chatbot

Google has already been testing its own conversational chatbot called Bard which will now be available in more than 180 countries.

The firm is ready to test the AI waters with its search engine, which has been synonymous with finding things on the internet for the past 20 years and serves as the pillar of a digital advertising empire that generated more than $220 billion in revenue last year.

Google boss Sundar Pichai speaks at the showcase event (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

The AI transition will begin cautiously with the search engine that serves as Google's crown jewel.

But a new AI tool will be immediately available.

Google is adding a filter called Perspectives that will focus on what people are saying online about whatever topic is entered into the search engine. The new feature will be placed along existing search filters for news, images and video.

More AI technology will be coming to Google's Gmail app with a 'Help Me Write' option that will produce lengthy replies to emails in seconds.

Pixel phone users will also soon have access to a new tool for photos called Magic Editor that will automatically doctor pictures.

Foldable Pixel phone

Besides using its annual showcase event to tout its prowess in AI, Google also unveiled the first foldable smartphone in its Pixel line-up of gadgets.

Google's entry into a new type of smartphone design that allows users to deploy the device as a mini-tablet too comes nearly three years after Samsung - the leading maker of smartphones powered by Google's Android software - introduced its first flexible model.

Foldable phones so far have remained a niche market, largely because of prices ranging between €1,000 and €2,500.

in 2022, about 14 million foldable phones were sold worldwide, accounting for just one per cent of overall smartphone shipments.

Google's foldable Pixel phone will sell for €1,700 and begin shipping next month. It will unfold with a hinge and, of course, be packed with AI. The bad news is it won't be on sale in Ireland but it will be on sale in the UK.

“We are at an exciting inflection point,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told a packed developers conference in a speech peppered with one AI reference after another.