Gemini AI to transform Google Maps into a more conversational experience
Google Maps is taking a new direction with artificial intelligence at the controls.
Powered by Google’s Gemini AI technology, the world’s most popular navigation app will become a more conversational companion under an overhaul announced Wednesday.
The hands-free experience aims to transform Google Maps into something more like an insightful passenger, able to direct a driver to a destination while also providing nearby recommendations on where to eat, shop or sightsee, when asked for advice.
“No need to fumble – now just ask,” Google promised in a blog post about the app redesign.
The AI features are also supposed to allow Google Maps to be more precise by calling up landmarks to indicate where to make a turn instead of relying on distance notifications.
AI chatbots, like Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, have sometimes lapsed into periods of invention — known as “hallucinations” in tech-speak — but Google promises that built-in protections will prevent Maps from accidentally sending drivers down the wrong road.
All the information Gemini relies on will be drawn from the approximately 250 million places stored in Google Maps’ reviews database accumulated over the past 20 years.
Google Maps’ new AI capabilities will roll out to Apple’s iPhone and Android mobile devices.
This will give Google’s Gemini a massive audience to impress – or disappoint – with its AI prowess, given that the navigation app is used by more than 2 billion people worldwide. In addition to making it even more indispensable, Google hopes the AI features will turn into a showcase that will help give Gemini a competitive advantage over ChatGPT.
Driven by OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT in late 2022, Google is gradually rolling out more of its own technology designed to ensure its products continue to evolve with the disruption brought about by AI. The changes include an overhaul of Google’s ubiquitous search engine that placed less emphasis on a list of relevant web links in its results and increasingly emphasized AI insights and conversational responses delivered via an AI mode.
