Google's Project Astra appears to be the future of AI assistants

Earlier this week, OpenAI demonstrated their latest AI model, ChatGPT-4o, using a smartphone to answer natural voice inquiries. The demonstration also used the smartphone's camera to answer questions.

During the Google I/O 2024 keynote, the company revealed that its DeepMind division is developing a new AI helper called "Project Astra." This AI helper may use a smartphone or even smart glasses to respond to its owner's spoken instructions.

In the case study film, the user asks Project Astra several questions regarding their immediate surroundings. In one case, the smartphone detects some crayons in a mug, and the user requests, "Astra, give me a creative alliteration about these." The AI helper replied with:

Creative crayons color cheerfully. They certainly craft colorful creations.

In another segment of the video sample, the camera observes some code on a whiteboard, and the person inquires, "What does that part of the code do?" "Astra" responded:

This code defines encryption and decryption functions. It seems to use AES-CBC encryption to encode and decode data based on a key and an initialization vector.

The AI assistant can also participate in more imaginative answers. When the camera views a plush tiger and a real golden retriever, and the person asks "Astra" for a band name for both of them, The AI assistant said, "Golden stripes."

Project Astra will be demonstrated to everyone who attends this week's Google I/O conference. However, there is no news on when "Project Astra" will become available to the general public. It sounds like it may be a while before this AI assistant is officially available.