Google has always managed to keep us on tenterhooks when it comes to the yearly I/O program and this time around the Mountain View company gave us a glimpse at the technology of the immediate future, the one we would be able to use in a couple of months. Google Now has been one of the most useful feature on Android and I have been personally using it for chores like setting the alarm, opening applications and managing my tasks on Calendar. While all this is fine I somehow felt the Cortana on Windows to be a tad more intuitive trailed by the SIRI on iOS. Google has already got a hang of the voice commands and now they have taken the entire affair to stratospherical level with the Google Assistant.
Google Assistant seems to be the most futuristic piece of artificial intelligence, the best part is it supports two-way dialogue and converses like a normal human. Let’s spare a glance at some of the amazing things you can do with the Google Assistant and you decide on how it will change your lives.
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Two Way Dialogue
Remember how Google Now loses the context when you try to converse with it. For instance, if you ask Google, “Which is the best restaurant nearby” it would fetch you the results however, if the question was followed by “What is the rating of the restaurant” then the Assistant would go mum. Google Assistant now supports contextual conversation allowing you to actually converse with the assistant as if it was an actual human.
The Blend
The Demo clearly showed what the Google Assistant is capable of, just stand next to a monument and ask the Assistant “Who designed this?” and it would answer in seconds. All of this without actually supplementing with the question with other information.
Maybe next time you see a shiny red sports car just ask Google to identify the make for you. Just imagine the multitude of use cases that are possible with this feature.
Know it all
We all love to challenge the machines be it a robot or a program based on Artificial Intelligence. It seems that Google Assistant will not budge an inch even it its pushed to the limit. Here is a conversation that was previously very difficult or even impossible for a machine to comprehend and process.
What’s Playing tonight?
The Assistant not only fetches the result for your query but also suggests the best three films based on your preferences. In case you want to filter the results further just say, “I want to take my Kids along”, Voila! The result gets sorted with movies suitable for the kids to watch. Moreover, every single conversation will take a different path, much like a roleplay of the real life! The complexity of the question can also go as far as this one “What was the US Population when NASA was established?”
The Ecosystem
Google has decided to bake in the Assistant in all of its devices be it the Smart TV or the newly announced Google Home, it goes into it all. Imagine waking up and asking Google Home to play the morning music playlist and also choose the speakers on which it should be played. Another good bit about the Google Assistant is that it works in tandem with other Android devices in case you send a playlist to your Google Home it will directly play it on the speakers. Google Assistant has already marked its presence on Google Home and the Allo Assistant.
Personalized Queries
It takes all sorts (of queries) to make this world! Well, all of us have different queries and since we are not machines it is not factually correct to assume that the queries will be in a standard formatting. For this reason, Google Assistant has been built to answer each queries in a personalized way, just like a uber smart chat bot. Lets presume that your query needs many things to be answered, Assistant will sort out the query and supply answers to all your questions.
It is but evident that Google wants to establish itself as an AI product that would return results to whatever you will ask and the Google Search engine would be a very important cog in the machinery. Google Assistant will now directly rival other Virtual Assistant products including the likes of Cortana and SIRI, also not to mention the third party apps.
Mahit Huilgol is a Mechanical Engineering graduate and is a Technology and Automobile aficionado. He ditched the Corporate boardroom wars in favor of technology...