American technology company Google will now send messages to users through its AI assistant, ‘Gemini’.
The company is adding an artificial intelligence tool to its Messages app which means ‘Gemini’ will now appear in the friends list ready to chat with users via text only.
The introduction that appears when chatting with ‘Gemini’ encourages users to draft messages so that people can, for example, discuss their friends’ responses with the AI system.
The tool can also be used to brainstorm exciting ideas, plan events or just have a fun conversation without leaving the Messages app, Google said.
This new update comes amid growing criticism of Google’s Gemini AI Assistant. Last week, Google was forced to take some of its functions offline due to a controversy in which its artificial intelligence tool was creating racially diverse but inaccurate historical images.
This section contains related reference points (Related Nodes field).
For example, when users asked the Google AI tool to generate images of Nazi soldiers or America’s founding fathers, it came up with mostly or only images of women or ethnic black people.
Google admitted that its tools ‘were not working properly’ and that it had stopped the system from creating images of people.
The introduction of Gemini in Messages is only possible on Android phones and is only available to those who are part of Google’s beta program.
This development has been introduced during several new Android updates, many of which focused on artificial intelligence. For example, a similar new tool ‘Android Auto’ can now automatically summarize long messages and busy chats, as well as suggest relevant replies. This tool can be selected while driving.
Android will also be able to create captions for photos, a feature said to be designed for the blind and visually impaired communities. The company has also added new accessibility features to Google Maps so that it can identify important locations and communicate information about them aloud to the user on the speaker.
Google also said it has redesigned its Fitbit app. It will now consolidate different types of data from wearable devices in one place.