Google teases new camera-powered AI feature one day ahead of I/O

Google is teasing an intriguing new AI feature one day ahead of its I/O developer conference. The company shared a brief video on X that appears to show a new camera-powered AI feature that’s able to recognize what’s in the frame in real time.

The video, which is labeled as a “prototype,” shows what appears to be a Pixel device with the camera open viewing the keynote stage at I/O. The person holding the camera asks, “hey, what do you think is happening here?”

A voice replies that “it looks like people are setting up for a large event, perhaps a conference or presentation.” It’s also able to identify the “IO” letters as being tied to Google’s developer conference and mentions “new advancements in artificial intelligence.” As the two voices go back and forth, a text transcript appears on the screen.

It’s not exactly clear what the feature is, though it bears some similarities to Google Lens, the company’s camera-powered search feature. What’s shown in the teaser video, however, appears to be working in real-time, and responding to voice commands much like the multimodal AI in Meta’s smart glasses. The fact that the demo is shown on a Pixel device is also intriguing as Google often releases new AI-powered features on its Pixel lineup first.

While it’s somewhat unusual for Google to preview one of its announcements so soon before its big keynote, it’s likely not a coincidence that the company dropped the video right as OpenAI showed off similar capabilities with its new GPT-4o model during a live event. Whatever Google has in store, though, we don’t have much longer to wait to get the full details. Google I/O kicks off tomorrow, May 14, and Engadget will be covering the keynote live from Mountain View.