Google kicks off I/O conference with AI upgrades for coders, consumers

Key points

• By Kenrick Cai MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, May 19 (Reuters) - Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai kicked off Google's annual developer conference on Tuesday where the tech giant is expected to reveal a flurry of artificial intelligence upgrades for consumers and coders.
• This year’s I/O conference in Mountain View, California - traditionally Google’s flagship event for showcasing the cutting edge of its consumer-facing products - will be the company's first since last winter's major update to its Gemini AI model helped it regain ground in the AI race.
• “I think it's been an incredible year, all of the relentless shifting, the rapid advances in technology.
• It's been a period of hyper progress,” Pichai said.
• Pichai also said that its Gemini AI chatbot now has 900 million monthly users, while its AI Overviews feature in Search has 2.5 billion monthly users.