GOOGLE PACKS MORE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE INTO NEW PIXEL PHONES, RAISES PRICES FOR DEVICES BY $100

Google on Wednesday unveiled a next-generation Pixel smartphones lineup that will be infused with more artificial intelligence tools capable of writing captions about photos that can also be altered by the technology.

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The injection of more artificial intelligence, or AI, into Google’s products marks another step toward bringing more of the technology into the mainstream – a push company executives signaled they were embarking upon during their annual developer’s conference five months ago.

“Our focus is on making AI more helpful for everyone in a way that is bold and responsible,” Rick Osterloh, Google’s senior vice president of devices and services, said during Wednesday’s event held in New York. As if to leave no doubt about Google’s current priorities, Osterloh described the new Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro phones as a conduit for having “AI in your hand.”

The next moves will include allowing the 7-year-old Google Assistant to tap into the company’s recently hatched AI chatbot, Bard, to perform tasks. The expanded access to Bard comes just two weeks after Google began connecting the AI chatbot to the company’s other popular service such as Gmail, Maps and YouTube.

Google is leaving it up to each user to decide whether to allow Bard to interact with its other services, an effort to address worries about AI sifting through potentially sensitive information as it seeks to learn more about language and people.