Kerry Wan/ZDNET
Google has had an eventful year already, rebranding its AI chatbot from Bard to Gemini and releasing several new AI models. At this year’s Google I/O, expect the company to make even more announcements regarding AI, its various apps and services, and potentially some new hardware for 2024.
When is Google I/O?
Google’s annual developer conference is approaching quickly, taking place on May 14 and 15 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. The opening day keynote, when Google leaders take the stage to unveil the company’s latest hardware and software, will begin at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET.
How to watch Google I/O
Google will live stream the event on its main website as well as YouTube for members of the public and press. You can register for the event on the Google I/O landing page for free to take advantage of perks such as receiving email updates and watching on-demand sessions. There will be an in-person element to I/O too, as has been the case for the past two years, with media and developers invited to attend. ZDNET will be among the crowd in Mountain View.
What’s expected at Google I/O?
This past week, Google shared its I/O schedule online, which includes a full agenda of the keynotes, technical sessions, and workshops scheduled for the event, giving us a good glimpse of what the major announcements to expect.
As anticipated from the announcements already made this year, a major focal point of the event will likely be artificial intelligence.
Also: These 3 Gemini upgrades will help you get more out of the AI assistant
In addition to the technology having its own “What’s new in Google AI” keynote, we see generative AI sprinkled throughout other keynote descriptions as well, including a mention under the “What’s new in Android” keynote and another titled, “What’s new in Firebase for building gen AI features.”
There are also over ten confirmed developer “technical sessions” relating to generative AI, focused on topics including the latest Gemma advancements and learning how to use multimodal retrieval-augmented generation with Gemini.
For reference, at last year’s I/O, AI was also the crown jewel of the event with major announcements such as two new large language models (PaLM 2 and Bard-now-Gemini), new AI features in Android 14, chatbot improvements, and more.
Android news at Google I/O
Similarly, this year, you can expect to learn more about the new features in Android 15, which will likely feature a myriad of new AI capabilities, updates to Gemini, and maybe even a new large language model.
A technical session titled “Building for the future of Wear OS” confirms that the event will unveil Wear OS 5, following the launch of Wear OS 4 last July. With the new watch software, we might also get more details on the upcoming iteration of the Pixel Watch 3.
Also: New Pixel 8a leak suggests major upgrades in almost every way
The event schedule also points towards new software upgrades across Android 15, Android in-car experiences, Chrome OS, and Android developer tools.
Google I/O will likely showcase some new hardware too. Given the recent leak of the Google Pixel 8a, it is almost guaranteed that the smartphone will be released, or at least revealed, before or during Google I/O 2024. The Pixel 7a, unveiled at last year’s event, proved to be an impressive mid-range smartphone when reviewed by ZDNET, and the leaks for this year’s iteration show that the latest model will offer even better upgrades.
Google I/O is notorious for surprises, meaning you can always expect something no one is talking about — not yet, at least. ZDNET will be covering the event, so if you can’t tune in, stick around for the latest updates.