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sparkle
Google refers to the four-pointed stars as “glitter”. Shape is used for several AI features:
- Bard uses a large glitter with smaller glitter in the bottom right corner.
- Use Magic Compose in Google Messages, Help Me Write in Gmail and Docs, the pen icon with glitter at the top left.
- Android/Pixel cinematic wallpapers use large glitter with smaller wallpapers to the right.
- The sparkle in Duet AI (more on that below) is white and placed in a circle with a blue hue.
- The generative search experiment (SGE) has the most detailed fluorescence, with four semicircles forming the outer figure.
Duet AI for Workspace
I think the clearest vision for Google to implement AI is Workspace. The company wants you to “collaborate in real time with AI.” It’s easy to see how Help Me Write can help you with Gmail and Docs, while the image creation uses in Presentations and Meet (for custom backgrounds) are also quite obvious.
“AI can act as a coach, thought partner, and source of inspiration, as well as a productivity booster across all Workspace applications.”
Meanwhile, spreadsheets are daunting for most people, and having an assistant guide you through creating them can really expand the scope of use. This constant help makes “Duet” an apt name.
In the short term, Google tells us that generative AI in spreadsheets and presentations — as well as “six more productive AI features across the workspace” — will enter the Trusted Tester program “starting next month.” It’s related to Gmail’s Help Me Write feature, and Docs is seeing wider availability for Labs on the web.
And later this year, all of this will be generally available to business and consumer workspace users via a new service called Duet AI for Workspace.
What Duet will look like is much clearer when you add the Google Workspace “Sidekick” apps. It’s launched by clicking on a new icon that you feel is intentionally placed to the left of your (on the web) profile avatar. Launching this side panel launches Sidekick to “immediately read and process the document” or send an email to provide a summary of what’s being worked on, offer suggested prompts, and reveal an “Ask anything…” field.
Generative AI in Google Search
The generative AI in Google’s most important products is called Generative Search Experience (SGE). The section below the search bar is referred to as AI Snapshot. We see the sparkle symbol followed by the disclaimer:
- Al generation is experimental
- Al Generative may be inaccurate or offensive
SGE results are presented against variable backgrounds that adapt to whatever image is displayed. (Content-based dynamic color in Article 3/You Language.) Google says that color “plays a huge role in helping people understand that SGE is a new way to interact with search.”
“For example, the container of colors in an AI-powered snapshot will change dynamically, and that use of color will evolve over the next few months to better reflect specific flight types and the query intent itself.”
This colorful background extends to the expanded shot view as you “see how information is confirmed” and the conversation experience.
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