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Google Photos Is Getting Gemini AI Search With 'Ask Photos'

Forget scrolling through your thousands of photos -- soon you'll be able to ask a question and Gemini will help you find a specific moment in your pictures.

Corinne Reichert Senior Editor
Corinne Reichert (she/her) grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to California in 2019. She holds degrees in law and communications, and currently writes news, analysis and features for CNET across the topics of electric vehicles, broadband networks, mobile devices, big tech, artificial intelligence, home technology and entertainment. In her spare time, she watches soccer games and F1 races, and goes to Disneyland as often as possible.
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  • I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
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Corinne Reichert
2 min read
Google I/O Gemini Ask Photos
James Martin/CNET

Google is adding an artificial intelligence assistant to photo searches with its AI tool Gemini, it announced during its annual developers conference Google I/O Tuesday. 

In what sounds to be an AI extension of its memories feature -- where Google Photos resurfaces your pictures from a year or two ago each day, and makes a highlights album with some of your most-photographed people -- Ask Photos will let you search your images for specific moments by asking Google Photos a question, providing you with AI overviews.

More from Google I/O 2024

"Thanks to Gemini, we can create much more powerful search experiences, including within our product," Google said at the event. 

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You can already search Google Photos through text, for instance searching for "license" to find a picture of your driver's license, but Google says the Gemini addition will allow for more complex queries.

"For example, you might be reminiscing about your daughter Lucia's early milestones. You can ask photos, 'When did Lucia learn to swim?' You can even follow up with something more complex: 'Show me how Lucia's swimming has progressed,'" Google explained.

Watch this: Ask Photos Uses AI to Search Your Google Gallery

We don't yet know the parameters for excluding any unwanted photos from your searches, and it's worth noting that Gemini has been known to hallucinate. Google says, though, that it will recognize different contexts -- like the difference between swimming lessons in a pool compared to snorkeling in the ocean. 

Ask Photos will launch this summer.

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