Google becomes latest vendor to add AI to its hardware

Chromebook Plus laptops will have Gemini by default

Like Microsoft, Google is adding gen-AI features to its own hardware – and the branding is pretty similar, too...

Google is adding a host of generative AI features to its new Chromebook Plus laptops, including text and image generation and enhanced photo editing.

The search giant announced the news this week, just a few days after Microsoft showed off its own Copilot+ PC line of AI hardware.

You don't need to be a tech genius to see the branding similarities here, but in this case Google actually pipped Microsoft to the post: it launched Chromebook Plus last October, and announced then that gen-AI functionality would be coming later.

The Register says supported Chromebook Plus laptops will receive the new AI features via automatic updates starting in June.

What's new?

The most common use for gen-AI is still text generation, and Google has that covered with the ‘Help me write' feature. It will generate text from scratch using a prompt, or edit existing prose in whatever way the user desires.

"Simply right click to get suggestions or change the tone to fit your audience," says Google.

A more niche feature is the ability to generate new backgrounds for videoconferencing – we question how much that'll be used.

On the other hand, Magic Editor for Google Photos promises easier editing for picture aficionados. Chromebook Plus owners can use the new feature to remove, rescale and move elements of an image, as well as perform various lighting adjustments.

Finally, Google is adding a shortcut to its Gemini AI tool, and 12 months of free access to the snappily named Google One AI Premium plan.

What's next?

As part of its AI Chromebook Plus announcement, Google also previewed new features it will roll out to the laptops over the next 12 months. They don't all revolve around AI, but the two that do stand out a bit.

‘Help me read' adds a summarisation feature to Gemini, summing up websites and PDFs with a simple right click. Users will also be able to ask follow-up questions. Definitely handy for business users.

The other upcoming feature builds on Google's existing work with Project Gameface, building AI-driven hands-free control right into ChromeOS. Users will be able to control their PC using their face and gestures – a big win for accessibility.

When Microsoft announced Copilot integration last week, it stressed its use of local data processing for features like Recall. We asked Google about its use of local versus cloud processing, and received the following response:

"The team takes a use-case based approach when deciding to run an AI model on-device or the cloud, with the ultimate deciding factor being what technology brings users the best experience. When something needs to be capable of running offline, an on-device processing model makes sense. When something is more complex and resource-intensive, we can use the power and scale of Google's cloud expertise to deliver a powerful experience without increasing the cost of the hardware requirements for the user.

"Features like Help me Write leverage the cloud, which means they can provide multiple variations for the answer simultaneously using the latest models, meanwhile features like the systemwide camera background blur use on-device processing power as even 30 milliseconds would be unacceptable lag. Magic Editor, uses a mix of both depending on what is being done (generating content via the cloud, detecting the edges of a selected item on-device) This isn't static though– what you'll likely see as these models improve and get more efficient, is that certain models and features may move on-device, especially ones where lack of connectivity is critical.

"As further background, ChromeOS has been using AI to enhance the device in the background for a while now– you see it in dozens of places like in the launcher search bar, hardware acceleration, live captioning, even simple things like palm rejection when using a stylus."

This article was updated on 31st May to add a response from Google.