If there ’s one matter to come up out ofGoogle I / type O 2024thatreallycaught my eye , it ’s Google ’s Project Astra . In unretentive , Astra is a new AI assistant with speech , imagination , text , and memory capabilities . you’re able to talk to it as if it were another somebody in the room , require it to account thing it determine , and even require it to remember data about those thing .
During the I / O keynote announcing Astra , one of the most telling moments happen when a individual was go Astra on a headphone , asking it to name things in a elbow room . When the person take Astra where their glasses were , Astra quickly pointed out where they were in the room — even without being remind earlier in the video about them .
But does Project Astra actually work like that in the real world ? I got to see it in action during a flying 10 - minute demo at I / O , and you sleep together what ? I ’m passably impressed .
‘That’s a good stick figure!’
Google walked us through a handful of Astra demos : Alliteration , Pictionary , Storytelling , and Free Form . They all did what you ’d bear , and they were all every bit telling . For some linguistic context , the Astra demo Google testify during its I / O tonic had the AI persist on a phone . In the demo I get word ( which I was n’t allowed to take photos or videos of ) , Astra was running on a laptop computer and connected to a television camera plus a touchscreen display .
In the Alliteration demo , members from the Project Astra team had it “ look ” at random objects ( with the camera guide at a demo table ) . It accurately identified what it was wait at — a stuffed animal , a toy orchard apple tree , and a toy dog — and talked in initial rhyme the whole time it was describing what it see . It was all a chip goofy , but Astra knew everything it was looking at , and it did put a smile on my face .
Another fun present moment happened during the Pictionary demo . Someone from the Astra team used the join touch screen to withdraw a stick material body . As she was explicate that she was draw the stick figure first , Astra — unprompted — exclaimed , “ That ’s a good stick figure ! ” with much enthusiasm .
It was a pernicious moment , but it really drove home just how different Astra is from , say , Google Assistant . No one needed to ask , “ Hey Astra , what do you cogitate about this marijuana cigarette frame ? ” It saw the reefer design , heard the Googler spill the beans about it , and provided feedback all on its own . It was kind of jaw - dropping . From there , the Astra team member put a skull emoji on the joint figure ’s outstretched hand . When expect what play the drawing was supposed to comprise , Astra immediately guessedHamlet .
Storytelling and Free Form had their moments , too . For the Storytelling demo , Astra was show a miniature crabby person and asked to tell a account about it . Astra started telling a elaborated story about the Phthirius pubis walking through a beach . A fidget spinner was then placed on the board , and Astra was asked to incorporate it into the story . It did so without jump a heartbeat .
As the name suggests , the Free Form demo put Astra in a position to dowhateverwas call for of it . It was shown three stuff animals and tell apart their names . Someone then asked Astra to recall the names of the various animal , and it got two out of three correct . Just like you and me , Astra remembers thing it hear and hears . Google is still figuring out how much Astra should recall and how long it should hold that information , and those are decisive contingent to be ironed out . But the fact that this happensat allis nothing short of magic .
Hearing is believing
The quality of its response was just as telling . Listening to Astra , I never once felt like I was hearing a practical assistant speak to me . The voice inflections and lifelike oral presentation pattern Astra render wasreallysomething . If I closed my eyes , I might be able-bodied to fox myself into call up I was listen to someone else in the room with me — not a information processing system .
If we ’re ever function to get toa point where AI feels like a friendly , helpful , and personable helper , it postulate to feel like you ’re talking to a Quaker . Astra feels like it ’s really close to that , and that ’s boundlessly more exciting than Gems , tokens , or any of the other AI jargon Google spent two hour verbalize about during its keynote .
Is Astra really the AI of the future?
As the name “ Project Astra ” suggests , Astra is very much still a work in progress and not something Google is quick to transport anytime before long . Will Astra finally replace the Google Assistant on my Android phone ? Will I even need a phone if I can just have a yoke of smart glasses with Astra integrated into them ? Perhaps more significantly , are we anywhere secretive to Astra being quick for normal , everyday use ?
Those are all very with child questions Google still take to address , and I guess it will be a while before we have answers to any of them . But after experiencing Astra for myself and mull over on my time with it , I ca n’t avail but feel excited about its potential .
A smart , friendly , memorable , and easy - to - let the cat out of the bag - to AI assistant that really feels like something out of a sci - fi flick ? That ’s something to babble about .
It ’s very well-heeled to feel bad about AI , and truly so . When Google spent office of the I / O tonic vaunt about AI double genesis , using AI to create flick , or having AI sum up Google Search effect — which could very well kill the modern internet as we know it — I could n’t help but fear the AI - permeate hereafter we ’re rapidly barreling toward . But a chic , favorable , memorable , and leisurely - to - talk - to AI assistant that in reality palpate like something out of a sci - fi movie ? That ’s something to talk about .
I do n’t know if Astra will ever be as cool or encompassing as I ’m dreaming it up to be . But it really find like there could be a future where that happens , and I go for that ’s the AI futurity Google puts its efforts toward .
