Enlarge (credit: Google)

On Wednesday, Google introduced PaLM 2 , a family of foundational language models comparable to OpenAI's GPT-4 . At its Google I/O event in Mountain View, California, Google revealed that it already uses PaLM 2 to power 25 products, including its Bard conversational AI assistant.

As a family of large language models (LLMs), PaLM 2 has been trained on an enormous volume of data and does next-word prediction, which outputs the most likely text after a prompt input by humans. PaLM stands for "Pathways Language Model," and " Pathways " is a machine-learning technique created at Google. PaLM 2 follows up on the original PaLM , which Google announced in April 2022.

According to Google, PaLM 2 supports over 100 languages and can perform "reasoning," code generation, and multi-lingual translation. During his 2023 Google I/O keynote, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that PaLM 2 comes in four sizes: Gecko, Otter, Bison, Unicorn. Gecko is the smallest and can reportedly run on a mobile device. Aside from Bard, PaLM 2 is behind AI features in Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Enlarge / Android Studio will get a dedicated helper chatbot called Studio Bot. (credit: Google )

During today's I/O presentation, Google announced Studio Bot, an AI assistant that Android developers can use to help write and debug code.

Built on Codey and the revised PaLM 2 large language model, Studio Bot is only available to US developers for now and is in its "very early days," Google said. It's part of Android Studio, Google's official integrated development environment (IDE) for Android devs.

This is distinct from another Codey-based project that is meant to compete directly with GitHub's Copilot at completing and generating in-line code.

Enlarge (credit: Google)

At Wednesday's Google I/O conference, Google announced wide availability of its ChatGPT-like AI assistant, Bard , in over 180 countries with no waitlist. It also announced updates such as support for Japanese and Korean, visual responses to queries, integration with Google services, and add-ons that will extend Bard's capabilities.

Similar to how OpenAI upgraded ChatGPT with GPT-4 after its launch, Bard is getting an upgrade under the hood. Google says that some of Bard's recent enhancements are powered by Google's new PaLM 2 , a family of foundational large language models (LLMs) that have enabled " advanced math and reasoning skills " and better coding capabilities. Previously, Bard used Google's LaMDA AI model.

Google plans to add Google Lens integration to Bard, which will allow users to include photos and images in their prompts. On the Bard demo page, Google shows an example of uploading a photo of dogs and asking Bard to “write a funny caption about these two." Reportedly, Bard will analyze the photo, detect the dog breeds, and draft some amusing captions on demand.

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  This lineup, from left to right, shows the Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7, Pixel 7a, and then the Pixel Fold. It's very short and very wide. [credit: Google ]

Following Google's early half-announcement that the Pixel Fold is a real phone, Google finally posted the full details of the upcoming foldable today during the company's I/O conference. Google's first foldable smartphone will cost $1,799, and it's up for preorder now. Google says the phone is shipping sometime next month.

First, let's talk about the very interesting dimensions of the Pixel Fold. The official specs have the phone at 139.7×79.5×12.1 mm when folded and 139.7×158.7×5.8 mm when open. Just look at the lineup of Pixel phones in the gallery above. The Fold is both the shortest and widest phone in the lineup. That 5.8 mm thickness for each half is very thin, easily besting the 6.3-mm-thick Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Oppo Find N2, which is 7.4 mm thick.

Google calls this the thinnest foldable on the market. That's true for the US, but internationally, you can find the Huawei Mate X3 at 5.3 mm for each half or the 5.4-mm-per-half Xiaomi Fold 2 . We're usually not fans of the old-school smartphone thinness wars, but for foldables, which are mini tablets you're supposed to carry in a pocket, bulk can be a real problem. Google is pitching this device as being pocket-friendly. At 283 g, though, it seems like it will weigh a lot compared to the Fold 4 (263 g) or the Oppo Find N2 (an impressive 233 g).

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  The Pixel Tablet on the magnetic dock. [credit: Google ]

The Pixel Tablet was announced one year ago at Google I/O 2022 , then a second time at the Pixel 7's launch event , and now it's back on stage for a third time at Google I/O 2023. This time, it's getting a full spec sheet and a price. The Pixel Tablet is officially in iPad territory at $499, and that's with the fancy magnetic speaker dock included in the box. It's going up for preorder today, and will ship sometime next month.

Since it's been a year, here is a quick recap: This is Google's first self-branded Android tablet in eight years. The Pixel Tablet release follows up the company's rebooted Android tablet strategy, which started with Android 12L in 2022, and has continued with pretty comprehensive tablet updates to most of Google's apps.

For specs, we have a 10.95-inch, 60 Hz, 2560×1600 LCD, the Google Tensor G2 SoC (same as the Pixel phones, that's an Arm X1 chip), 8GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of storage, and a 27 watt-hour battery. The cameras seem like an afterthought, with only an 8 MP sensor on the front and back. There's a fingerprint reader included in the power button, and while there's no official stylus, the tablet has USI 2.0 compatibility . The body is aluminum, with a "nano ceramic coating" that Google says is "inspired by porcelain."

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  The Pixel 7a, now packing a 90 Hz display. [credit: Ron Amadeo ]

You know the drill by now—the Pixel a-series is the best phone line Google makes. A combination of good design, a great camera, the right specs, and a low price makes it our usual recommendation for prospective Android phone buyers on a budget. The Pixel 7a presents more of that winning formula, and a few key upgrades this year make it so good that the more expensive Pixel phone directly above it—the $600 Pixel 7—is now basically obsolete.

Since the phone has been fully unveiled today, let's go over the specs. First up, the price— it's $500 , which is $50 more expensive than last year. That extra fifty bucks gets you some big upgrades over last year, though, like a 6.1-inch, 90 Hz, 2400×1080 OLED (the 6a has a 60 Hz display); 8GB of RAM (formerly 6GB); 7.5 W wireless charging (formerly no wireless charging); and a 64 MP main camera that's new to the Pixel line.

Other expected specs are here, too, like a Google Tensor G2 SoC—that's the same chip the more expensive models have—plus 128GB of storage, IP67 dust and water resistance, 18 W wired charging, and Wi-Fi 6e. There's a marginally smaller battery, which is officially 4385 mAh (it was formerly 4500 mAh).

Enlarge / Sadly the Shoreline Amphitheatre will be empty this year. Google I/O is online-only. (credit: picture alliance / Getty Images)

Google I/O 2021 is actually happening this year. But due to a certain worldwide pandemic, it will be all online instead of outside in the sun of Mountain View. Google skipped the 2020 edition entirely, but the company is finally ready to deliver its first ever virtual Google I/O. For us onlookers, that means we're officially entering unknown territory.

Google I/O starts Tuesday, May 18 at 1 pm EDT, when Google/Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai will take the stage and presumably show off what Google has been working on all year. We've been prepping for the show ourselves, and the shift to an all-virtual event hasn't lessened the amount of tea leaves to read. We're expecting to see quite a few things over the next week.

Well, first, let's talk about what we're probably not going to see: the Pixel 5a. At Google I/O 2019 , we saw the launch of the Pixel 3a in May of that year. But with I/O 2020 canceled, the Pixel 4a didn't hit the market until much later in the following year, on August 20, 2020. Normally we would call the launch timeframe for the 5a a toss up between mirroring the 3a or 4a launch dates, but Google has already set us straight. Back in April, the company said the Pixel 5a would be "announced in line with when last year’s a-series phone was introduced." So that's August, not May, and not at Google I/O.

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