Key Takeaways
- Google is reportedly developing a Pixel-exclusive digital assistant called Pixie, which will have advanced contextual features.
- The company may have also had discussions about creating a new pair of smart glasses with AI vision capabilities.
Siri, Google Assistant, and Samsung’s Bixby are all about to get a second-wave revival in some form with generative AI. Apple’s been going slow and steady on the task while Samsung is reportedly gunning for a launch with the Galaxy S24 series early next year. Meanwhile, Google is preparing to infuse its Bard large language AI product into Google Assistant, but it also has something on the back burner that should be ready in about a year’s time. It also may decide to revive Google Glass with the power of AI, but there doesn’t seem to be a solid plan behind that… at least, not yet.
Pixie Mania
That’s all according to reporting from The Information, with two unnamed sources claiming that a new, Pixel-exclusive digital assistant called Pixie could make its way to the Pixel 9 and 9 Pro devices next fall. Pixie would bring advanced contextual features referencing data generated by the user across Google’s services such as Gmail and Maps. The sources do not give specifics on what those features are, but they do note that there is an urgency to follow up on the initial launch by making Pixie available on the more affordable Pixel A-series devices as well as Pixel Watch wearables as soon as possible. Google did not immediately respond to Pocket-lint’s comment request.
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Google has just dipped its toes into incorporating generative AI into its hardware portfolio. At the same time the company officially launched its Gemini model last week, it also began to drip-feed enhancements to the Pixel 8 Pro’s Recorder and Gboard apps by loading a minuscule version of the model, Gemini Nano, onto devices. The company appears to be baking in Nano as part of a core system service to the Android operating system starting with Android 14, likely giving non-Google phones access to generative AI tricks within all sorts of apps from Google and third parties alike.
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There may be a hint of what to expect in the differentiation between Gemini’s general app-focused approach towards applying AI features and Pixie’s scope on the user’s relationship to Google. We aren’t certain that Pixie will run off of Gemini Nano, but given that Google announced this week its intention to have users store their Location Data on-device, we highly suspect the answer is “yes.” Stay tuned, however, for further details.
Google Glass, yet again?
One source claims there are discussions at hand to produce yet another pair of smart glasses. Again, the details are loose and blurry as to form factor and hardware capabilities, but the main selling point here is that the glasses will be able to recognize objects and environments through some form of AI vision and advise the wearer on what to do like “how to use a tool, solve a math problem, or play a music instrument,” according to The Information.
Google Glass had a short, brutal life in the consumer space with privacy concerns over its camera features, a wonky design, and a lack of perceived value with its $1,500 early adopter price tag. It did manage to survive two iterations as an enterprise product, but support for the latest version ended back in September. It’s not yet clear how AI (and a few other improvements given the passage of time) would boost the proposition of everyday camera-equipped glasses.
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