Google Starts Rolling Out AI That Uses Your Smartphone Camera to ‘See’ The World
Google has started rolling out “Project Astra,” an AI that can see via a person’s smartphone camera, enabling it to answer questions about the world around it.
Project Astra, which was first announced almost a year ago, has begun showing for some Gemini Live Users. The Verge explains that the Astra features allow Google’s AI model Gemini to interpret the live feed from the user’s smartphone camera in real-time.
Google recently shared a demonstration video in which someone called Amy asks what paint color she should use on her newly fired vase.
It’s an interesting exhibit and, if it works as well as Google makes out, it’s a tool that might come in handy for photographers. It could be used to ask, similar to the pottery video, which colors would go well with a particular background or even a technical question; which focal length to use, or information on how to operate a particular camera.
In Google’s announcement video for Astra last year (at the top of this page), the AI model is taken around an office and asked all manner of questions, including where the user left her glasses — that really could be useful.
Astra also has a feature where it can “see” a user’s screen. A Redditor shared a short demo of it where the gist of what it will do is clear. 9to5Google reports Project Astra will be rolled out slowly to users so it might be worth checking your Gemini app to see if it is there.
AI Assistant
Astra is a step toward a personalized AI assistant which tech companies seem to believe will be the next big thing. In a leaked recording of a Meta meeting last month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicted that this year, a “highly intelligent and personalized” digital assistant will reach one billion users.
“I think whoever gets there first is going to have a long-term, durable advantage towards building one of the most important products in history,” Zuckerberg says in the recording, while also stating his belief that AI agents will start working for Meta; writing software.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
