Drivers navigating traffic during their morning commute will be able to do much more than just find directions and the nearest gas station on Google Maps.
In the coming weeks, Google will add its Gemini AI assistant to Google Maps, allowing drivers to get answers to more complex questions while they're on the road.
Users will be able to communicate with the artificial intelligence by saying “Hey Google” or tapping the Gemini icon on Google Maps. The Google Maps app currently has an AI assistant, but the questions it can answer are limited.
Demonstrating how Gemini works on Google Maps, the assistant answered questions about inexpensive vegan restaurants along the driver's route and parking options. He even added soccer practices to the calendar.
“It really is like having a friend, a local expert, sitting next to you in the passenger seat,” said Vishal Dutta, group product manager for Google Maps, at a virtual press conference.
Google Maps users will be able to use their voice to report an outage. Artificial intelligence will also summarize information such as sports scores, emails and news while people commute to and from the office.
Google said it has also created a new feature called Lens with Gemini, which allows people to use the AI assistant by clicking the camera icon when they come across an unfamiliar location on the map. They might ask the assistant why the restaurant is so popular or what the atmosphere is like inside before deciding whether to spend time there. This feature will arrive later this month.
The product updates are examples of how the Mountain View, California-based company is integrating new AI-powered features, competing with tech companies like OpenAI, Meta and Apple, which also have AI assistants. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has taken on Google with new products such as a new web browser to compete with Google Chrome.
As the artificial intelligence race heats up, companies are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into data centers, talent, and research and development.
Although Google and its parent company Alphabet saw the potential of generative artificial intelligence early, some critics say they are lagging behind nimble startups. Google hopes it can regain its edge with the type of information it has access to. It contains a ton of valuable data about locations and disturbances on the highway, such as accidents or construction sites.
“We're at something of an inflection point,” Amanda Moore, Google Maps' chief product officer, said at the virtual event. “We're seeing AI greatly expand the ability to help people do more in the real world with a map, and it's much more visual, immersive, fresh, predictive and interactive than ever before.”
Google Maps is a widely popular product, used by more than 2 billion users worldwide every month.
The company said it tested the product in California and other places around the country, and people asked the assistant a lot of questions. Thanks to AI assistants, tech companies are playing an even greater role in people's daily lives and learning more about their customers.
As more people turn to AI chatbots for help with everything from shopping to communication, it's also raising familiar questions about technology's role in mental health, privacy, copyrights and more. But AI can also sometimes give incorrect answers.
Moore said the assistant must provide accurate information because it is “based” on Google data about streets and places that exist in the real world.
Users will also have to give Gemini permission to access their services and apps, such as Google Calendar.
The information provided by Gemini is not used to show people more targeted advertising.
