AI News Update: December Announcements

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April 10, 2025

ThomasRoberts

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# ai # Gemini # research # Android # Pixel

AI News Update: December Announcements

For over two decades, we've been diving deep into machine learning and AI, pouring resources into research, tools, and infrastructure to create products that make everyday life easier for everyone. 2024 was another huge year for AI, and we wrapped it up with some exciting updates across our AI models, consumer products, and research efforts. Let's take a quick look back at some of our AI announcements from December. If you prefer to learn by listening, you can also check out a NotebookLM Audio Overview recap of our December news. This audio summary is generated from various sources like YouTube videos and Keyword posts. Just a heads up, Audio Overviews are still in the experimental phase, so the recap might have a few audio hiccups. Your browser does not support the audio element. NotebookLM Audio Overview: December AI Announcements A discussion of "The latest AI news we announced in December." Audio Overview generated by NotebookLM. We're stepping into the agentic era of AI. Throughout the past year, we've been focusing on developing more agentic models that can better understand your surroundings and take actions on your behalf, with your oversight. In December, we launched Gemini 2.0, our most advanced model to date, equipped with agentic capabilities for developers, businesses, and individuals worldwide. We also rolled out a bunch of experimental models for developers to play with, including gemini-exp-1206 in AI Studio, Gemini Advanced, and an experimental "thinking" version of Gemini 2.0. These developments are bringing us closer to our goal of creating a universal AI assistant that makes information more accessible to everyone. Information drives human progress, and we're committed to pushing AI's boundaries to organize and make it truly useful for all. We introduced our latest AI models for video and image generation — Veo 2 and Imagen 3. These new versions have outperformed leading models in head-to-head comparisons, as judged by human raters. Veo 2, in particular, has a better grasp of real-world physics, enabling it to produce high-quality videos with enhanced detail and realism. Both models are now accessible through VideoFX, ImageFX, and our newest Labs experiment, Whisk. We've given NotebookLM a significant upgrade, including a fresh new look and new features like the ability to "join" Audio Overviews to chat with the hosts. Plus, we've introduced NotebookLM Plus, a premium version. Spotify Wrapped fans got a special treat this year with their first-ever 2024 Spotify Wrapped AI podcast, crafted with NotebookLM. We've also added new AI features to Android and Pixel devices. This December, we rolled out a ton of new AI-powered features for Android and Pixel, including easier photo navigation and sharing, improvements to Call Screen, better document scanning in Google Drive, and audio captions that capture the emotion and intensity of speech. We shared five AI trends that we think will shape businesses in 2025. We believe AI will boost enterprise security, improve search capabilities, and enhance customer experiences. Plus, businesses of all sizes will be able to use AI agents to simplify complex tasks. On that note, we've introduced a new space for AI agents in Google Cloud. Google Agentspace will help companies boost their employees' productivity by combining AI agents, Gemini's advanced reasoning, Google-quality search, and enterprise data in one place. Also, Cloud announced that Veo and Imagen 3 are now available for businesses on Vertex AI. Google DeepMind launched GenCast, a new AI model for weather prediction that significantly improves forecast accuracy. GenCast advances the field by providing faster and more accurate predictions up to 15 days in advance. With more precise forecasts of extreme weather, officials can better protect lives and critical infrastructure. We've made GenCast an open model to encourage broader collaboration and accelerate research in the weather and climate community. We unveiled Willow, our cutting-edge quantum chip. Willow marks a major breakthrough in quantum computing, solving a key challenge in quantum error correction that the field has been tackling for nearly 30 years. It also performed a benchmark computation in just 5 minutes that would take one of the world's fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years — longer than the universe has been around! Advanced AI could greatly benefit from quantum computing, and as we've reached a significant milestone in the Gemini era this month, we're excited to keep exploring the potential of these transformative technologies.

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