Google I/O 2023 Live Blog: Pixel 7A, Fold, Tablet and Bard AI Reveals

And that's the end of Google I/O 2023, or should we say, Google AI. It was a very AI-focused conference, talking about all the ways generative AI can help make your life faster and easier. But Google continued to push a "responsible AI" message, one that tries to grapple with the awesome power of AI along with its risks. Towards the end, Google finally gave more details on Android and new devices: the Pixel 7A, Pixel Tablet and Pixel Fold. 

In Pichai's final words, he said Google will transform Search once again and make AI helpful for everyone.

Google is confirming that Wear OS 4 will arrive later this year, and in the meantime a number of Wear OS apps and features are getting added to watches like Google's Pixel Watch and Samsung's Galaxy Watch series.

Google services like Gmail, Calendar and Home will be getting new controls in Wear OS, including faster access to messages, events and smart home controls. WhatsApp plans to launch their first smartwatch app on Wear OS this summer, which will include texting and voice calls. Spotify and Peloton will also have updates that bring faster access to playlists and workout details, respectively.

Now that the Pixel Fold has been unveiled, we're seeing how Android works on foldables when it's Google doing the programming. Typical tricks are here, like starting a video on the outside screen and seamlessly transferring it to the inside screen when unfolding the device. Also, if you have an app open on each screen and try switching apps, Android will keep your paired apps together.

And while it wasn't shown in a live demo, the Pixel Fold's reveal video showed something very cool -- a live translation mode that, while the Fold is open, translates what you're saying to the outside screen (so whoever you're speaking to can see it). Neat.  

Google admits that tablets are an odd product, somewhere between a phone and a more capable device. Either way, the Pixel Tablet will have a nano ceramic coating. Google says it's updated its apps for larger screens. Like last year, Google shows off the charging speaker dock, making it more like a smart display.

When docked, it goes into "hub mode." It feels like a smart display, Google says, but has full access to Android apps. 

Because the Pixel Tablet is a tablet for the home, it'll allow user switching while maintaining privacy. The Pixel Tablet will also have Chromecast built-in. 

Read more: Pixel Tablet Hands-On: Google's Return of the Tablet and More

Google's first foldable is officially official. Like most Google products of late, leaks seemed to reveal nearly everything about this device before its launch. CNET's Lisa Eadicicco got hands-on with the $1,799 device that may finally bring some foldable competition to Samsung (outside of China).

Google unveiled its Pixel 7A midrange smartphone, which finally brings the vaunted Google-designed Tensor chipset to its more affordable series of phones. The premium Tensor processor enables cool features like Magic Eraser, but other upgrades from last year's Pixel 6A include a 72% larger photo sensor. CNET Senior Editor Lisa Eadicicco believes this might be the best-value phone in Google's lineup.

Read more: Google Pixel 7A Review: The Best Pixel Phone for the Money

We haven't seen the reveal of all the exciting Android 14 features in the just-released public beta, but one thing AI will help with is generated wallpapers. You can add some emoji to make a funky, shifting background -- or turn a flat photo into a "cinematic" wallpaper that moves with a parallax effect. The example used wasn't exactly inspiring, with some objects too distant from others, but it's cool to make your regular photos a little more dynamic.

Google announced during the I/O conference that 800 million people are now using RCS texting on Android phones -- which in its current form is essentially Google's version of Apple's iMessage. Google has been increasingly adding features to its Messages app to bring it to parity with iMessage and other chat apps like WhatsApp, including message reactions and message encryption when used between Android phones that can use Google's Messages app.

A typical dig at Apple was thrown for the company to consider integrating with the RCS standard, but it's worth noting that many of Google Messages' features still do not integrate with other third-party texting apps on Android. RCS is also not supported with other Google texting services, such as Google Voice.

As such, despite Google's current claim that Apple should "get the message" and join up with the RCS standard, it does appear it's still going to be a long road for these texting apps to consider direct integration. In the meantime, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Viber and many other chat apps will happily fill that gap.

Google talked up its own new messaging standard, RCS, to take over from SMS in sending high quality images and video. "We hope every mobile operating system gets the message and adopts RCS," said the presenter. That'll have to square with Tim Cook's suggestion to a Code conference attendee whose mom got left out of iMessage chats: "Buy your mom an iPhone."

Google will update the Find My Device app to more devices. Like Apple, it'll use a network of Android devices to help people find their devices. Last week, Apple and Google announced that both Android and iOS will be able to tell you if there's an unwanted tracker on your person. Google reiterated this on stage. 

Google is pushing the idea that it's paying attention to public concerns around AI, and is adding context to google image results by surfacing similar photos. Aforementioned watermarks will add digital context to images, too. The company is also performing "adversarial testing" to run through potentially volatile questions -- like "how was the moon landing faked" -- and refine the AI-generated answers to avoid misinformation.

Notably, Google is addressing its 'responsibility' rather than ethics.

Google shows off an interesting tool called Universal Translator. Here, it can take a video of someone speaking in English, analyze the video and translate it into Spanish with audio. The person's lip movements will be altered to match Spanish. But Google said this tool would only be available to specific entities, not for public use. 

Here's a project that developers at Google have been working on for the past few weeks. It essentially takes notes you've written and it'll organize all the different notes from your Drive account. Tailwind will build a study guide on the side, pulling out key concepts. You can also ask Tailwind to organize your information or ask it questions based on the notes you've taken. It shows the citations, too. Tailwind isn't just handy for students, but for lawyers or financial analysts -- anyone with lots of information that needs to be organized. 

Head of Google Cloud Thomas Kurian came on stage to talk about how the company's AI tools can help businesses with operational and codebase improvements -- but there are ways that could trickle down to every day life, like voice AI untangling what you're saying in your oddball fast food orders ("one JBC") for workers and online systems ("one junior bacon cheeseburger").

The CEO of Google has weighed in on the "is a hot dog a sandwich?" debate. The verdict from the admitted vegetarian? "It's more like a taco, because the bread goes around it," Pichai said on stage. 

Now back to your regular Google I/O news... 

The Generative Experience is available now for testing in the Labs section within the Google app. If you want to test it out yourself, enable it.

Read more: Google Reveals Its AI-Powered Search Engine to Keep Up With Competition

Google is showing off a revamped version of Search. Here, Google says people can naturally ask Search questions and get answers. Previously, you would have to break up a question into multiple searches and put the information together yourself. A search will bring a "snapshot" -- a generative AI block of text or images. Below will be the links people are used to. Of course, Google says it'll integrate ads. 

Google knows folks are a bit wary about AI, so it makes sense it would add some more fun, everyday applications -- like using Duet AI to suggest new plot twists for short stories when you catch writer's block, or add suggestions for making a potluck list with friends. Just normal, everyday stuff. No scary robots here!

Duet AI for Workspace puts AI generation in Docs, Sheets and Slides. Here, a person can ask AI to help write a resume, put together charts for a business or generate images for a slideshow. In the example shown by Aparna Pappu, VP of Google Workspace, it generated an image of pizza fondu and inserted the image in a slideshow.

Google isn't just adding more features to Bard, it's also opening it up to more people. Similar to Microsoft's move last week, Google is dropping Bard's waiting list to let people in over 180 countries and territories today. The company is also adding support for Japanese and Korean (in addition to English) and teases that it is on track to have its AI tool work with 40 languages "soon."

With so much attention being placed on the Pixel 7A, Pixel Tablet and Pixel Fold, one device I'm wondering about is the Pixel 8. Google has previously used its I/O events to tease upcoming Pixel devices, last year using I/O to tease the Pixel Tablet and Pixel 7 line months ahead of their official releases (or in the case of the tablet, nearly a full year). 

With so much new hardware set to be released, will Google continue the teases and start hyping its traditional fall event? 

Google shows off multimodal AI search in Bard. It's demonstrated by posting a photo of two dogs and asking Bard to write funny captions about the two.

You can also search for information in Bard and have it open up results in Google Maps or Sheets. Sissie Hsiao, vice president at Google and general manager for Google Assistant and Bard, explained how to ask Bard questions and easily export answers into a doc. It'll be possible to get a list of prospective colleges, map it all out in Maps, and export the information in Sheets.

Bard has learned over 20 programming languages, including C++, Go, JavaScript, Python, Kotlin and Google Sheets functions. But the biggest cheer at the Shoreline Amphitheatre is that Bard is getting a dark mode. Never change, programmers.

How will Google watermark AI content? The company has another AI model, Gemini, which seems dedicated to security tasks like identifying "synthetically generated content" aka text, images and footage created by AI. Gemini and other AI models will check watermarking -- metadata integrated in content -- and other techniques to tell you what's unaltered and what's AI-created.

In a more general sense, Google is aiming to watermark synthetic images. Pichai says that the realism of AI-generated images can become a problem in the future. Pichai says that by adding image metadata, it'll make it easier to identify synthetic images. We assume he means as a means to fight misinformation.

Google dives deep into PaLM 2, an update to Google's Large Language Model that's powering Bard. It can work with over 100 languages. Pichai says PaLM 2 has specific advantages in specialized domains, like medicine. It can answer questions at an expert level on medical exams.

Google is doubling down on AI, saying its core to its mission of organizing the world's information. Pichai says the company wants to develop AI tools responsibly.  

The AI tools keep coming, like Magic Editor, a follow-up to the Pixel-specific (or after the fact in Google One) Magic Eraser feature. In addition to deleting elements in photos that you don't want, Magic Editor lets users grab and move elements -- great if you want to line yourself up properly for that iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa photo. It's coming to Google Photos later this year.

Google I/O has officially started with the keynote from CEO Sundar Pichai, who is kicking off his talk by talking about AI -- how it's been integrated in past products, and what new tools are coming, like "Help Me Write" in Gmail and a new "Immersive View" tool in Maps.

Noted leaker SnoopyTech posted an ad on Twitter of a Google Pixel Fold. 

Google tells us that there will be 5,000 people in attendance. 

The Shoreline Amphitheater is opening up here. People are slowly getting to their seats as a DJ plays tunes in the background on an overcast Wednesday morning. 

As the CNET team heads into Google I/O, there are also signs welcoming attendees to the conference.

The CNET team is arriving to Google I/O, and we're already spotting Google-themed items. Near the Google I/O registration area are several Google bicycles. Google often goes pretty big on these decorative items during its developer conference.

Although we've had foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 4 or Moto Razr for some time, these devices are yet to offer much in the way of real innovation in how we use our phones on a daily basis. Once you get over the novelty of the bending screen, they're arguably just another expensive Android phone. As a result, foldables haven't hit the mainstream yet.

Google could change this, though, by working closer with its developer partners to find more innovative and exciting ways to use both the outer and folding inner displays of its phone, while baking more fold-centric features into Android for other non-Pixel folding phones to take advantage of.

Google launched its first major smartwatch, the Google Pixel Watch, last fall -- and while we don't expect to see a successor teased at Google I/O, the wearable is currently discounted by $60. If you were waiting to pick one up, now is the time. 

We liked the Pixel Watch when it launched in October for its stylish round design, which looks a bit more minimalist than the comparable Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. The Pixel Watch has the usual gamut of smartwatch features: a range of health sensors to take an ECG and track blood oxygen levels, as well as the ability to make contactless payments through Google Wallet and track sleep.

Google included a few new phone features in its Android 14 developer previews released earlier this year, giving insiders a sneak peek at the next big operating system update expected to launch alongside the Pixel 8 in the fall. But now anyone with a modern Pixel phone can download a public beta version of Android 14 before Google I/O even starts. (Only Pixel 4A 5G and newer Google phones can access the beta, so anyone with a Pixel 3A or older is out of luck.)

Typically, the Android public beta comes out after Google's annual event wraps up, so it's cool to see it come early this year. While the public beta will give us a better idea of what's coming in the full release, we still have a wish list of what we'd like to see in Android 14.

The road to Wear OS 3 and Google's Pixel Watch has been a long one, and continues even though both the software and the watch are now available. Wear OS 3 was first announced during Google I/O 2021, as part of a development collaboration between Google and Samsung. The new operating system then made its debut on Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4, but it would be months until the watch would receive Google services like the Assistant.

Two years later and Wear OS 3 is now available with most Google services across watches made by Samsung, Google, Fossil and other makers. Now, going into Google I/O, the company could continue revealing what the future of Wear OS looks like as it expands to other smartwatches. In particular, Fitbit fitness tracking remains a software exclusive to Google's own Pixel Watch, but it would be quite noteworthy to see if the service were to expand beyond watches and fitness trackers made by Google.

Google's first foldable was formally teased by the company last week, but in the coming hours we should know all about it. According to rumors, Google's rival to Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold line sports a similar design but has a wider front screen that hopefully should make it easier to use when the device is closed.

Pricing for the Pixel Fold, however, isn't expected to be cheap when it reportedly arrives in June. A CNBC report suggested that it could run over $1,700. Whatever the device is, we shouldn't have to wait much longer to see if it has what it takes to give Samsung a run for your money. 

The rumored Pixel 7A might have a lot in common with the Pixel 7, and in some cases might even be a better phone. The Pixel 7A is said to have a 64-megapixel main camera, as reported by Phone Arena, which is surprising because the Pixel 7 has a 50-megapixel main camera. While megapixels aren't the be-all and end-all when it comes to photo quality, Google's Pixel phones have a reputation for great photo processing software too. Even last year's Pixel 6A -- which had a lower price partly because of its 12.2-megapixel main camera -- takes great photos because of how its camera software optimizes every shot.

Should the phone get its reveal, we'll have to see how Google justifies the Pixel 7A against the Pixel 7. Especially if the Pixel 7A is also $100 to $150 cheaper than its presumably higher-end sibling.

At last year's Google I/O, the Stadia cloud gaming service didn't receive any meaningful announcements. Then by the end of 2022, Google announced that the service would be discontinued and that most of its customers would receive refunds.

While the developers conference itself didn't provide a direct indication that Stadia was on its way out, I/O certainly does show what Google's biggest priorities will be for the rest of the year. Other Google projects that have graced the I/O stage before eventually getting killed off include the Allo text messaging app, Google Daydream VR and the Google Duplex automation service.

Google took an unusual approach when revealing the Pixel Tablet at last year's I/O conference. Despite announcing the device in spring 2022, it made clear that the tablet's release wouldn't happen until 2023. 

A full year later, Google has since revealed that its Pixel Tablet will pair up with a magnetic charging dock that will allow it to act like a Nest Hub while attached. Not much else is known yet ahead of I/O. We'll be looking to see what Google might offer to compete against Apple's iPad and Samsung's Galaxy tablets.

Google's Bard AI is quite likely to get a showcase during Google I/O, and it's already rumored to be showing up in the Google Messages texting app.

According to screenshots reported on by 9to5Google, a "Magic Compose" feature would create a number of reply suggestions generated by AI. These suggestions will even let you select a "style" of response, including "chill," "excited" or "lyrical."

Google's Pixel brand has been expanding beyond phones, with last year's I/O conference serving as a debut for the Pixel Watch and a tease of the Pixel Tablet. 

This year, Pixel's phone line could take the biggest spotlight, especially as Google debuts a Pixel Fold phone that would rival Samsung's Galaxy Fold series.