Google announced its plans to incorporate artificial intelligence into its existing products at I/O 2023, the company's annual developer conference. Though we've seen implementations of AI before from Google, like its conversational chatbot Bard, the technology hadn't made its way into the company's most popular products. That's now changing, with AI becoming a significant part of services like Google Search and Google Workspace. The experimental features within these services are found in Google Labs, a place to try out Google's latest artificial intelligence implementations for yourself.
The Google Labs website went live a little over an hour after the Google I/O 2023 event began and allows users to join wait lists for Google's experimental features. These include Search Labs, Google Workspace with AI, Project Tailwind, and MusicLM. Google says that these experiments have limited availability at the moment, and you'll need to join the waitlist for each experiment individually. To join some of the wait lists and experience the experimental features, like Google Search Labs and Google Workspace with AI, you'll need to access the Labs site with the Google Chrome browser.
Google Search is getting a boost with AI in Google Labs, gaining the ability to respond to searches with detailed responses in plain language. Unlike conversational chatbots, Search Labs can show you the websites and sources that were used to formulate its response. That makes it possible to fact-check or do further research into the AI's response, which is a significant advantage over a conversational chatbot. After signing up for the Search Labs waitlist, you'll be contacted via email when the feature is ready. Google also says that you can learn more about Search Labs in the Google app on iOS and Android.
The Google Workspace Labs experiment lets you test out generative AI tools in services like Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Sheets. Though artificial intelligence suggestions have been built into Gmail for a while, generative AI can write entire emails on your behalf. In Google Docs and Google Sheets, it can create documents and spreadsheets based on the information provided. In a demo, Google asked Google Workspace Labs to make a dog-walking business spreadsheet, and it automatically organized and populated a template spreadsheet. To sign up for the waitlist, you'll need to be 18 years or older, and you will receive an email when it's time to try out Google Workspace Labs.
Other current features in Google Labs include Project Tailwind and MusicLM. Project Tailwind is an "AI-first notebook" that can process inputted notes and respond to queries related to those notes naturally. In essence, it's an advanced version of document search. MusicLM creates music based on what you're looking for, so asking for calming sounds might play relaxing music.
All these features are labeled as experimental and limited, but you can sign up today to join the waitlist. However, Google did announce that it has lifted the waitlist for Google Bard in 180 countries.