The largest software event of the year for the manufacturer of Android, Google I/O 2024, gets underway in Mountain View, California, today. The event will be livestreamed by the corporation starting at 10:00 am Pacific Time or 10:30 pm Indian Time, in addition to an in-person gathering at the Shoreline Amphitheatre.

During the I/O 2024 event, Google is anticipated to reveal a number of significant updates, such as details regarding the release date of Android 15, new AI capabilities, the most recent iterations of Wear OS, Android TV, and Google TV, as well as a new Pixie AI assistant.

Google I/O 2024’s top 5 anticipated announcements are:

1) The Android 15 is Highlighted:

It is anticipated that Google will reveal a sneak peek at the upcoming Android version at the I/O event, as it does every year. Google has arranged a meeting to go over the main features of Android 15, and during the same briefing, the tech giant might possibly disclose the operating system’s release date.

While a significant design makeover isn’t anticipated for Android 15, there may be a number of improvements that will assist increase user productivity, security, and privacy. A number of other new features found in Google’s most recent operating system include partial screen sharing, satellite connectivity, audio sharing, notification cooldown, app archiving, and notification cooldown.

2) Pixie AI Assistant:

Also anticipated from Google is the introduction of “Pixie,” a brand-new virtual assistant that is only available on Pixel devices and is powered by Gemini. In addition to text and speech input, the new assistant might also allow users to exchange images with Pixie. This is known as multimodal functionality.

Pixie AI may be able to access data from a user’s device, including Gmail or Maps, according to a report from the previous year, making it a more customized variant of Google Assistant.

3) Gemini AI Upgrades:

The highlight of Google’s I/O event last year was AI, and this year, with OpenAI announcing its newest large language model, GPT-4, just one day before I/O 2024, the firm faces even more competition.

With the aid of Gemini AI, Google is anticipated to deliver significant enhancements to a number of its primary programs, including Maps, Chrome, Gmail, and Google Workspace. Furthermore, Google might be prepared to use Gemini in place of Google Assistant on all Android devices at last. The Gemini AI app already gives users the option to switch the chatbot out as Android’s default assistant app.

4) Hardware Updates:

Google has been utilizing I/O to showcase some of its newest devices even though it’s not really a hardware-focused event. For instance, during the I/O 2023 event, the firm debuted the Google Pixel 7a and the first-ever Pixel Fold.

But, considering that it has already announced the Pixel 8a smartphone, it is unlikely that Google would make any significant hardware announcements this time around. The Pixel Fold series, on the other hand, might be introduced this year alongside the Pixel 9 series.

5) Wear OS 5:

At last, Google has made the decision to update its wearable operating system. But the business has a history of keeping quiet about all the new features that Wear OS 5 will.

A description of the Wear OS5 session states that the new operating system will include advances in the Watch Face format, along with how to build and design for an increasing range of devices.

The large language model (LLM) has undergone another iteration, according to the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

An image-to-text model of the new Falcon 2 is available, according to a press release issued by the TII on Monday, May 13.

Per the publication, the Falcon 2 11B VLM, one of the two new LLM versions, can translate visual inputs into written outputs thanks to its vision-to-language model (VLM) capabilities.

According to the announcement, aiding people with visual impairments, document management, digital archiving, and context indexing are among potential uses for the VLM capabilities.

A “more efficient and accessible LLM” is the goal of the other new version, Falcon 2 11B, according to the press statement. It performs on par with or better than AI models in its class among pre-trained models, having been trained on 5.5 trillion tokens having 11 billion parameters.

As stated in the announcement, both models are bilingual and can do duties in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and several other languages. Both provide unfettered access for developers worldwide as they are open-source.

Both can be integrated into laptops and other devices because they can run on a single graphics processing unit (GPU), according to the announcement.

The AI Cross-Center Unit of TII’s executive director and acting chief researcher, Dr. Hakim Hacid, stated in the release that “AI is continually evolving, and developers are recognizing the myriad benefits of smaller, more efficient models.” These models offer increased flexibility and smoothly integrate into edge AI infrastructure, the next big trend in developing technologies, in addition to meeting sustainability criteria and requiring less computer resources.

Businesses can now more easily utilize AI thanks to a trend toward the development of smaller, more affordable AI models.

“Smaller LLMs offer users more control compared to large language models like ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, making them more desirable in many instances,” Brian Peterson, co-founder and chief technology officer of Dialpad, a cloud-based, AI-powered platform, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in March. “They’re able to filter through a smaller subset of data, making them faster, more affordable, and, if you have your own data, far more customizable and even more accurate.”

Claude, an AI assistant, has been released in Europe by artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic.

Europe now has access to the web-based Claude.ai version, the Claude iOS app, and the subscription-based Claude Team plan, which gives enterprises access to the Claude 3 model family, the company announced in a press statement.

According to the release, “these products complement the Claude API, which was introduced in Europe earlier this year and enables programmers to incorporate Anthropic’s AI models into their own software, websites, or other services.”

According to Anthropic’s press release, “Claude has strong comprehension and fluency in French, German, Spanish, Italian, and other European languages, allowing users to converse with Claude in multiple languages.” “Anyone can easily incorporate our cutting-edge AI models into their workflows thanks to Claude’s intuitive, user-friendly interface.”

The European Union (EU) has the world’s most comprehensive regulation of AI , Bloomberg reported Monday (May 13).

According to the report, OpenAI’s ChatGPT is receiving privacy complaints in the EU, and Google does not currently sell its Gemini program there.

According to the report, Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, told Bloomberg that the company’s cloud computing partners, Amazon and Google, will assist it in adhering to EU standards. Additionally, Anthropic’s software is currently being utilized throughout the continent in the financial and hospitality industries.

In contrast to China and the United States, Europe has a distinct approach to AI that is characterized by tighter regulation and a stronger focus on ethics, PYMNTS said on May 2.

While the region has been sluggish to adopt AI in vital fields like government and healthcare, certain businesses are leading the way with AI initiatives there.

In numerous areas, industry benchmark evaluations of Anthropic’s Claude 3 models—which were introduced in 159 countries in March—bested those of rival AI models.

On May 1, the business released its first enterprise subscription plan for the Claude chatbot along with its first smartphone app.

The introduction of these new products was a major move for Anthropic and put it in a position to take on larger players in the AI space more directly, such as OpenAI and Google.