By Max A. Cherney
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Alphabet is expected to announce on Tuesday how it leverages artificial intelligence in its business, a day after OpenAI demonstrated a new AI model capable of working with sound and images in addition to text.
The annual I/O developer event is typically when Alphabet shows off its latest new technology, and whatever it reveals will help investors gauge its progress against Microsoft-backed OpenAI. The event serves as a critical indicator of Alphabet’s competitive position in the technology sector as it introduces AI to products such as search, used by billions of people around the world.
Google is expected to release the next version of its Android operating system along with a host of updates to its most advanced AI technology called Gemini.
A day before the event, Google revealed software in a video that appeared to demonstrate AI software that could draw conclusions about the camera’s live feed. The telephone operator asked several questions and the app responded with a voice similar to that of a virtual assistant.
The software appeared to have similar capabilities to those demonstrated by OpenAI when it launched its latest AI model, GPT-4o.
OpenAI on Monday introduced its new multimodal AI model called GPT-4o, which allows ChatGPT to respond with real-time voice and be interrupted, two characteristics of realistic voice conversations that AI voice assistants like Google Assistant have found difficult. The company said it would offer it for free to ChatGPT users, with no ads.
The conference is held at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California. CEO Sundar Pichai and other executives are scheduled to begin their presentation at 10 a.m. PT.
(Reporting by Max A. Cherney in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; Editing by Stephen Coates)
