![]() ![]() LaMDA is a new model for Natural Language Understanding (NLU) that was demo-ed somewhat unusually yesterday, by giving the planet Pluto and a paper aeroplane a voice. By investing early and extensively in leading edge machine learning technology and teams, Google are frequently at the forefront of new developments in this space, and - most importantly for our teams at K+C - able to open up advanced tools and models to developers globally. It wouldn’t be a Google keynote without a mass of AI driven announcements - and there were umpteen improvements to core products like Maps, Translate, and docs here. Near LaMDA show’s Google’s continued leadership in Natural Language interaction, and AI services generally Read more about Responsible Business at Kin + Carta here. These efforts are to be applauded - although there is still lingering controversy around Google’s Ethical AI team’s recent firing of key research staff. Google have redesigned these services from the ground up. PoC have often been served poorly by digital imaging services that were designed with only those with lighter skin, or built on data sets that skewed WEIRD. Google also announced important improvements to it’s camera and photos products to better serve People of Colour. With the growing attention on the environmental impacts of digital products, this leadership seems astute. In some cases, data centres are almost 90% carbon free already, and they are now committed to fully carbon free data centres across their operations - including energy intensive areas like cloud and artificial intelligence services - from 2030. On the environmental side, Google is building on its pioneering status as ‘carbon neutral’ in 2007, with a push to be fully carbon free. Google also shared some important progress they’ve made on becoming a more responsible business. ![]() Responsible Business a growing theme for tech-giant Google We’d expect utilising the new Material You system will drive preference amongst groups with impairments, and amongst those who are just drawn to it’s impressive flexibility. This is a boon for accessibility on Android, enabling users to tweak interfaces to better match the way they can best see and interact with the world. Impressively, this gives users far more control over colour palettes, fonts and even line widths. On the design side Material You provides an upgrade to Material Design - the previous design system for all Android and Google apps. It feels like the conversation around technology has decisively shifted towards data privacy being an important area for consumers considering the platforms and services they use. In terms of changes to the OS that means a new approach to notifications, toggles to control access to data and sensors, better password management, as well as a shifting of various machine learning processes to on-device to avoid sensitive data being uploaded to the cloud. It’s fair to say that ‘privacy' word was uttered more frequently throughout the 2 hour keynote than any other - as Google seeks to counteract Apple’s recent PR push to position its rival mobile operating system iOS as the preferred choice for privacy. The latest version of Google’s operating system comes with a slew of important upgrades for our developers, designers and mobile product specialists to understand and unpack, but not too many earth shattering strategic changes. Now Android 12 focuses on privacy and accessibility improvements We’ve pulled together the most important parts of yesterday’s keynote on each of these horizons below. There are products and platform changes arriving now, some things that are near launch but not quite here yet, and some concepts and advances that’ll impact the next horizon. Google’s continued investment in both new consumer facing products - like Android OS, Search and Google Suite - as well as foundational tech like AI, AR and Quantum Computing meant a set of announcements on a number of time horizons. That means a heady mix of big reveals for different audiences: some announcements that are still squarely directed at the core of developers and designers, some are product launches and marketing for the general public, some are targeting investors, and there’s now a distinct political and legal PR tinge in a world where calls for regulation and break-up of these powerful organisations is growing each year. These days, the big-tech conference keynotes provide an opportunity for these behemoths to set out the stall for the years ahead to the wider world - not just developers. ![]() Google’s annual developer conference - I/O - returned last night after an unplanned break in 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis. ![]()
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