"We see an opportunity to rethink laptops": Google unveils new AI gadget

Google has unveiled a new family of premium laptops called Googlebook. They will run on Android OS and utilize Gemini AI. Manufacturers Dell Technologies, Lenovo, HP, ASUS and Acer will introduce models based on this platform in the coming months, the tech giant said in a statement.

For the developer of the Android operating system, this is a new attempt to enter the laptop market: the last device in this segment of electronics, the company introduced in 2019, recalls Bloomberg. That was the Pixelbook Go. Now Google wants to build key features of the Gemini model into the core of the operating system and potentially offer users more AI capabilities than Windows and Mac devices.

"More than 15 years ago, we introduced the Chromebook, a laptop designed for a world where everything was primarily built around the cloud. Now, as we move from an operating system to an intelligent one, we see an opportunity to reimagine laptops," Android said in a blog post.

Google is positioning the new gadget as the result of a merger between Android and ChromeOS, the software platform on which Chromebook devices run. They have become in demand in education and among users who need a browser for basic tasks. But the new systems will offer significantly higher performance and better hardware than Chromebooks, Bloomberg writes. The specific design of the devices will be presented by the manufacturers themselves, but all Googlebooks will have the trademark Glowbar - a light bar that lights up when turned on.

"There's an opportunity to bring more innovation back to laptops, especially in the premium segment," Samir Samat, Google's top executive overseeing the Android ecosystem, said in an interview with Bloomberg. He declined to comment on whether Google plans to release its own Googlebooks.

Google has a chance to build AI "into a laptop in a different way - in a way that no one has really done yet", Samat added. Gemini Intelligence, which was also announced Tuesday, is a new brand for the latest custom AI features coming to premium Android devices this year.

Google and its partners aren't the only ones betting on the intermediate laptop segment: devices that offer more than Chromebooks or the cheapest Windows PCs. Apple earlier this year introduced the $599 MacBook Neo, which helped accelerate quarterly Mac sales growth to about 6 percent.

As CNBC notes, Google's plan to turn Gemini from a regular chatbot into a full-fledged intelligence layer for phone, browser, car, and laptop was unveiled just weeks before Apple is due to unveil its own Gemini-enabled Apple Intelligence update.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor