Google working on supercharged Assistant powered by generative AI

Google is working on ‘supercharged’ Assistant powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, similar to those that power ChatGPT and Bard.

“Since we launched Assistant seven years ago, we’ve built great experiences for the hundreds of millions of people who use it every month. And we’ve heard people’s strong desire for assistive, conversational technology that can improve their lives,” the tech giant said in an internal email sent to employees on Monday, seen by Axios.

“We’ve also seen the profound potential of generative AI to transform people’s lives and see a huge opportunity to explore what a supercharged Assistant, powered by the latest LLM technology, would look like,” it added.

According to the company, a portion of the team has already started working on this, beginning with mobile.

The company is also “eliminating a small number of roles within the team”, according to the email.

“We have already let these teammates know and we will provide dedicated support to help them through this transition,” the company said.

“Everyone impacted will have a minimum of 60-day internal search period, based on local requirements. These have been incredibly difficult decisions, so please support teammates who are processing this news.”

However, it is unclear how many employees are affected by the layoff.

Last month, it was reported that the tech giant was working on a feature that will allow users to use Google Assistant to summarise webpages.

In June, the company had introduced two new voices -- Lime and Indigo -- for its virtual assistant software application. “We added two new styles to our collection of US English voices, designed to bring more diversity to your current options,” the company had said. To find the new voices, users just have to say, “Hey Google, change your voice.”