Google won’t release any technology from its Project Astra, which aims to create AI applications that can understand and interact with the world in real-time, until at least next year.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai shared this update during a financial call on Tuesday. He mentioned that Google is working on ways for AI to perceive and understand its surroundings. He described Project Astra as a preview of what’s to come, with plans to provide these features as early as 2025.
Project Astra was presented at Google’s I/O developer conference in May 2024. It includes various technologies, like smartphone apps that can recognize objects in their environment and respond to related questions, as well as AI assistants that can complete tasks for users.
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During the conference, Google showcased a prototype from Project Astra that could answer questions about what it “saw” through a smartphone camera, such as identifying the neighborhood or naming a part on a broken bike.
Earlier reports suggested that Google might launch a consumer version of this AI experience by December, which could handle tasks like making purchases and booking flights. However, this now seems unlikely unless it is separate from Project Astra.
In a similar vein, Anthropic recently developed an AI that can control applications and web browsers on a PC, but has faced difficulties with basic tasks, highlighting how challenging it is to create effective AI agents.
