Google’s love for artificial intelligence was on full display Wednesday at its I/O developer conference, with executives taking nearly every opportunity to mention AI whenever possible.
At the Shoreline Amphitheater, not far from Google’s Mountain View, California, headquarters, CEO Sundar Pichai walked on stage to deliver the keynote speech kicking off Google I/O and was officially the first to say “AI” — but he was far from the last. CNET tallied that Pichai and other presenters mentioned AI roughly 143 times over the two-hour presentation, for about 1.153 AI mentions per minute.
We got this number by looking over Google’s YouTube transcript of the nearly two-hour and five-minute keynote presentation. We started our count once Pichai took the stage, and didn’t factor in Google’s preshow videos or DJs.
Other notable AI-related mentions:
AI is definitely the biggest trend in tech right now, gaining increased momentum when companies like OpenAI introduced consumer-facing applications like ChatGPT last Fall. Google rival Microsoft has a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI and has already begun integrating the technology into its Bing search engine including adding new features last week.
Google was reportedly caught flat-footed by ChatGPT’s release to the masses, triggering a ‘code red’ to accelerate AI development.
Google has shown AI-related features at prior I/O events, but always as interesting perks like Live Transcription glasses or as future-looking projects like its Starline conversational video chatbot. The Google I/O 2023 keynote, however, felt like a significant pivot to putting AI front and center — and Google flexing its muscles to show that it hasn’t fallen behind in the race.
