Google’s biggest event of the year, Google I/O, has come and gone. And there are a number of new features announced at the conference that you can try out right now. Here are some of the most interesting.
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AI Search Mode
As you might have expected, the event was full of AI-focused announcements. One of those is AI Search Mode; Google has been testing out the feature since earlier this year, but it is now available to everyone in the United States. Instead of the annoying and sometimes laughable AI search overviews provided with a regular Google search, the new mode is all AI.
On the main Google search page, select AI Mode in the search bar. While the usual Google search will provide links, the AI mode can be used to answer more complicated questions with full answers. The results look more like what you’ll see in ChatGPT Search with multiple paragraphs of explanations and reasoning along with sources that you can also visit. While there are many reasons that AI will never truly replace a traditional Google search, AI-powered search results do have many positives compared to the classic counterparts.
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Imagen 4
ChatGPT’s massively improved image creation tool has some competition with the arrival of Imagen 4. Google says that the model is now capable of providing images of 2K resolution with other aspect ratios. You can also pick different art styles and designs.
Probably the biggest change in the model is that it can now truly generate text and spell correctly. That was previously one of the biggest issues with AI-generated images.
Imagen 4 is available in Gemini and Whisk.
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Google AI Ultra
If you have a lot of money to burn, and can’t get enough of AI, Google has one expensive deal for you—the Google AI Ultra subscription. For the low, low cost of $250 per month, you can access the highest limits for all of Google’s models, along with a nice 30TB of cloud storage and a YouTube Premium subscription.
One of the features only available to AI Ultra subscribers is Veo 3, Google’s AI video model. The new model, according to Google, is better at handling real-world physics along with realistic lip-syncing as seen in the video above.
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Flow
Flow is an AI-powered video editor. It can create videos with Veo 2 or Veo 3 and then cut together clips on a timeline and control the camera movements while showing off the results. It’s also possible to create a static image with Imagen and then create a clip with the picture. Google AI Ultra subscribers can use either video creation model while anyone who pays for the more reasonable AI Pro subscription can use Veo 2 only.
