Google Launches New Multimodal Bard Assistant: Is the Era of AI-Enhanced Human Collaboration in Content Creation Upon Us?

At a recent product launch event, Google introduced its latest flagship Android smartphones, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. These devices are powered by the new Tensor G3 chip, enhancing machine learning capabilities and offering a range of innovative AI features. Users can now have webpages read aloud in multiple languages with a more natural-sounding voice, while the virtual assistant offers a more conversational experience.

The Pixel 8 Pro is particularly noteworthy as it is the first smartphone able to run Google's foundational large models directly on the device, featuring computational power 150 times greater than that of the Pixel 7. Additionally, Google announced the upcoming release of the "Assistant with Bard" for both Android and iOS, combining personal assistant functionalities with generative AI. This will allow users to interact with the Bard assistant through text, voice, or images, providing a versatile experience.

For instance, if a user asks, "What important emails did I miss this week?" the Bard assistant can summarize key points with direct links to those emails. It can also extract event addresses and display them on Google Maps. Additionally, if a user wants to share a photo of their dog on social media, they can simply request a caption from the Bard assistant, which will generate one by analyzing the image.

Google plans to roll out the Bard assistant to early testers shortly for feedback, with a broader public release expected in the coming months. Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, commented that current generative AI is a transitional phase leading to an era of interactive AI, where AI will connect users to software or real individuals based on their needs.

Suleyman noted that the initial wave of AI focused on classification, enabling AI to categorize inputs such as images, videos, audio, and text. We are now moving into a second wave—generative AI—where data input creates new outputs. The upcoming third wave will emphasize interactive AI, allowing users to engage in dialogue with AI capable of independent actions.

According to Tianfeng Securities, the increasing significance of AI applications in consumer-facing scenarios, particularly in chatbot and content creation, is becoming clear. The development and commercialization of AI in these areas are expected to advance rapidly. Analysts predict that AI iteration pace and subsequent developments will accelerate, particularly among major foreign firms, enhancing general chatbot capabilities and improving user experience.

Hua Jin Securities highlighted that the evolution of large models from general use to specialized applications represents a key step in practical commercialization, shifting focus from training to inference. As vertical models grow and mature, their applications will be crucial for unlocking greater growth potential. Furthermore, edge computing is emerging as a significant market, evolving towards industrial applications, with cloud computing companies, telecom operators, equipment manufacturers, and CDN firms all actively promoting implementation.