Much weirder is voice editing in Google Docs, in a new feature called Docs Live. By describing with your voice what you want to write, an agent will dictate your words, generate text, pull in citations from the web, and aim to turn your stream-of-consciousness wishes into a coherent document.
(Reminder: All this stuff may eventually have ads.)
For Gemini power users, Google is creating a new subscription tier, the AI Ultra plan, for $100 a month. It is also dropping the price of its top Gemini AI Ultra from $250 a month to $200.
Gemini Omni
Google announced Gemini Omni, an AI video generator, akin to Sora 2. That was OpenAI’s generator that let you deepfake yourself, but was eventually killed by the company.
Google’s approach is building out a far more realistic video generator that can incorporate real video and extrapolate all manner of AI-powered weirdness on top of that. Google is eager for you to turn Omni’s eye on yourself, putting your face front and center. As such, selfie videos can be modified to add different backgrounds, styles, or environments, making it appear that you are somewhere other than your actual location.
The feature was demoed on stage with a video of someone recording themselves walking through a metal sculpture. They then asked Omni to change the structure to look like it was made of bubbles. You can also add images and video of yourself from your camera roll and generate just about any variety of cinematic style. Google says Omni is capable of advanced animations and fun typography.
Google’s approach is focusing Omni on video creation first, though it says still image and text capabilities will be coming later. Eventually, Google says it wants to let Omni create any output with any input.
Read more about Omni in Reece Rogers’ story on WIRED. OmniFlash, a starter version of Omni, is available starting today for Google AI+ Pro and Ultra subscribers.
Gemini Spark
Gemini Spark is Google’s answer to OpenClaw, the viral AI powered helper bot that could be used to help with real life needs like buying groceries or researching vacation options (and occasionally causing you to wind up in a scam).
Spark can write emails or plan a block party and pull information from files in your Google Drive. It is meant to be a personal agent just for you, keeping up with your schedule so it knows the rhythms of your life, learns what major events are coming up, and can help manage long-term or recurring tasks for you.
Spark runs entirely on Google Cloud, which Google says means it can process background requests without having to leave your device on. For now Spark just works with other Google software, though not with the Chrome browser quite yet. Google says that is coming, along with third party support, later this summer.
WIRED’s Reece Rogers has a deeper dive into Spark.
Agents Love Shopping
To help you manage all of your online shopping, Google will start deploying an agentic-powered shopping experience. As you search for products, Google will show you listings that it hosts for products for sale at various retailers. You can also shop the old fashioned way, by going to various websites and perusing the listings there.
The big difference is that now, Google will offer a universal shopping cart. Just add the products you’re interested in as you surf, and Google’s agent will keep your wish list organized. It can alert you to price changes and tell you when there’s a newer version or a new color option available. While products are sitting in your cart, you can engage Gemini to ask for more details about your potential purchases, add other products to the cart, or try to find better deals at other retailers.
