On May 16th, when mentioning Sergey Brin, people often recall the awe-inspiring scene he presented at the 2012 Google I/O developer conference showcasing Google Glass. Twelve years later, the Google co-founder made another appearance at the I/O conference, but his focus has shifted to other areas.
During a small-scale media Q&A session following the opening day keynote address, Brin shared his views on Project Astra, Gemini Pro 1.5, and his most valued artificial intelligence applications.
Project Astra is one of Google's most ambitious artificial intelligence projects, aiming to achieve an "intelligent system capable of demonstrating reasoning, planning, and memory functions."
When asked about Project Astra and its potential wearable device form compared to Google Glass from a decade ago, Brin remarked, "It's quite interesting because it's almost perfect hardware." He added, "Looking at it now, it could very well be a killer app ten years from now. I just wish I could have foreseen that more accurately back then."
While the rise and fall story of Google Glass is well-known, in recent years, with the advancement of artificial intelligence technology and exploration of optimal hardware, the vision for this product has been revived—whether in the form of glasses, badges, or other forms. Brin leans towards a hands-free, wearable device rather than a phone.
Beyond hardware, Brin is truly excited about artificial intelligence technology—this was also a primary reason for his return to Google after retiring in 2019. It is reported that since his return to the company in 2023, Brin has played a significant role in developing Google's artificial intelligence products like Gemini, which is becoming a universal model foundation for various Google devices and services.
At this year's I/O conference, Google showcased the upgraded Gemini Pro 1.5 model, which can handle up to 2 million tokens (compared to the previous 1 million), enabling longer conversations and processing larger files. Brin finds the versatility of this AI model most impressive, from summarizing multiple Gmail messages to programming, these are his favorite AI application scenarios.
Brin stated, "As a computer scientist, I want to be involved in artificial intelligence. I believe now is the best time to be a computer scientist."
