Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 9 May 2018
How Google aims to simplify your life with AI

By RYAN NAKASHIMA and assistant.
MAE ANDERSON The assistant may also soon
AP Technology Writers be talking with ordinary
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) people at businesses for
— Google put the spotlight tasks such as restaurant
on its artificial intelligence reservations, although the
smarts at its annual devel- feature is still in develop-
opers conference Tuesday, ment.
announcing new consum- “Hi, I’m calling to book a
er features aimed at simpli- hair appointment for a cli-
fying your life. ent,” said a realistic-sound-
Many of the updates have ing automated voice in a
a practical bent, designed demo from the conference
to ease tasks such as com- stage. The AI assistant de-
posing emails, making lists, ployed pauses and “ums”
navigating city streets and and “mmm-hmms” to
lessening the digital dis- sound more human in con-
tractions that have increas- versation with real people.
ingly addled people’s lives Google said it will roll out
as a result of previous tech the technology, called
industry innovations. Duplex, as an experiment
One of the biggest crowd- in coming weeks. “We re-
pleasers for the thousands ally want to work hard to
of software developers get this right,” said Google
who gathered at the out- CEO Sundar Pichai, who
door conference was an kicked off the conference,
augmented reality feature known as Google I/O. Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks under a video showing singer John Legend at the Google I/O
on Google Maps that helps Other changes are more conference in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, May 8, 2018.
people get walking direc- immediate. Associated Press
tions. Users will be able to Gmail is getting an auto- make its assistant and other make information more Owners of Google’s own
follow arrows — or possibly complete feature that uses services so useful that peo- useful, accessible and ben- Pixel phones will get the
a cartoon-like creature — machine learning to of- ple can’t live without them eficial to all of society.” updates most quickly. Sam-
that appear on a camera fer suggestions for finishing — or the search results that Google’s latest version of sung is getting snubbed on
view showing the actual half-completed sentences. drive its advertising busi- its Android phone software, some of these new fea-
street in front of them. For example, “I haven’t ness. for now known as Android tures, at least for now.
Some new features for seen you” might be auto- But it also wants to play P, will offer other smart fea- It has been challenging
Android phones also aim completed to “I haven’t up the social benefits of AI tures. It will teach the bat- Google more frequently
to improve people’s digi- seen you in a while and I and how it’s being used to tery to adapt to how you by launching that services
tal well-being, including a hope you’re doing well.” improve health care, pre- use apps in order to con- duplicate what Google al-
new “shush” mode that au- You can accept the com- serve the environment and serve energy. ready offers on Android.
tomatically puts a phone pletion by hitting the tab make scientific discoveries. Phones using Android P will For instance, Samsung us-
in “do not disturb” mode if key. Pichai didn’t emphasize also learn how to set your ers won’t have access to
you flip it face down on a The Google Photos app the privacy and data secu- screen brightness by study- an early “beta” version of
table. And a “wind down” aims to get smarter about rity concerns that have put ing your manual adjust- Android P. Samsung’s cam-
mode will fade the screen suggesting who you might companies like Facebook, ments, a change from au- era app also won’t get a
to grey at a designated want to share photos with. Twitter and Google in the tomatic adjustments based built-in Lens feature that
time to help you discon- Whenever it recognizes crosshairs of regulators. on ambient light levels. lets Google offer informa-
nect before bed. a photo of one of your But he did say the com- But not everyone will see tion after taking a photo of
The company’s digital con- Google contacts, it can pany “can’t just be wide the new Android features a building or sign.
cierge, known only as the suggest sharing the photo eyed about the innova- soon — if at all. Android P Samsung has been devel-
Google Assistant, is getting with that person. tions technology creates.” won’t be released until lat- oping its own similar feature
new voices — including It will also convert photos “We know the path ahead er this year, and even then, called Bixby Vision.
one based on that of musi- to PDFs and automatically needs to be navigated phone manufacturers and It wasn’t immediately clear
cian John Legend — later add color to black-and- carefully and deliberately,” carriers frequently limit An- which company made the
this year. white photos or make part he said. droid updates to their new- call to withhold the features
It will also encourage kids to of a color photo black and “Our core mission is to est phones. announced Tuesday.q
be polite by thanking them white. The changes are
when they say please, simi- coming in the next two
lar to a feature Amazon is months. NASA, Uber team up to get
bringing to its Alexa voice The search giant aims to
flying taxis off the ground

LOS ANGELES (AP) — NASA delivery drones. that will allow residents
and Uber have signed an The announcement comes to hail a small aircraft the
agreement to explore put- as the Uber Elevate summit same way Uber users can
ting flying taxis in the skies in Los Angeles brings to- now use an app to call a
over US cities. gether tech and transpor- car. The space agency says
NASA said Tuesday that it tation leaders to discuss the simulations are planned at
will begin simulations for so- future of urban aviation. its research facility at Dal-
called “urban air mobility” NASA says the goal is to las Fort Worth International
vehicles that also include create a rideshare network Airport.q