While OpenAI spread its announcements over 12 days, Google has gone big, revealing Gemini 2.0 and giving a sneak peek of its new prototype smart glasses.
The standout feature of Gemini 2.0 is its focus on personalised AI agents.
One key highlight is Project Astra, which was first introduced at Google I/O in May.
Astra is described as a "universal AI agent" that uses a phone’s camera and voice recognition to handle everyday tasks.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai shared a preview on X, while a YouTube demo showed Astra’s impressive capabilities in action.
Although Astra is set to arrive on phones first, Google’s teaser of it working through smart glasses, similar to Meta’s Ray-Bans, gained attention. Yes, Google Glass is back, and it might finally do what it promised all those years ago.
Key features of Project Astra:
Astra can process inputs conversationally, handle mixed languages like French and Tamil, and pick up accents or uncommon words.
It works with Google Maps, Lens, and Search to answer prompts.
Astra remembers up to 10 minutes of conversations to provide more personalised responses.
It responds almost as quickly as human conversation, thanks to better audio processing and streaming.
Agent era sounds bougie
Astra was originally planned for release in 2023, but it’s now delayed until 2025, as announced by Sundar Pichai during an October earnings call.
In the latest update, Google revealed Astra is being tested on prototype smart glasses.
This testing hints at a partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm for a new XR platform, but the glasses in the teaser video seem different from Samsung’s expected January release, which reportedly won’t include a camera.
The race for AI-powered smart glasses is heating up.
Meta currently leads the market, but other companies like Xreal, with its X1-powered AR glasses, are catching up fast.
Google also plans to bring Astra to more devices, including the Gemini app, further establishing its presence in what it calls the "agent era."
Anyone got an original Google Glass in a box somewhere?