With artificial intelligence in the driver’s seat, Google Maps is moving in a new direction.
As part of a revamp revealed on Wednesday, the most widely used navigation app in the world will become a more conversational companion thanks to Google’s Gemini AI technology.
The goal of the hands-free experience is to make Google Maps more like a perceptive passenger who can guide a vehicle to a destination and, upon request, offer suggestions for nearby restaurants, shops, or tourist attractions.
In a blog post on the app redesign, Google said, “No fumbling required—now you can just ask.”
By shouting out landmarks to indicate where to make a turn rather than depending on distance alerts, the AI features are also expected to make Google Maps more accurate.
Google is saying that built-in protections will prevent Maps from unintentionally sending vehicles down the incorrect path, although AI chatbots, such as Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, have occasionally gone into periods of making things up—known in tech parlance as “hallucinations.”
The approximately 250 million locations kept in Google Maps’ database of ratings gathered over the previous 20 years will be the source of all the data Gemini is using.
The new AI features of Google Maps will be available on Android and Apple’s iPhone smartphones.
Given that more than 2 billion people use the GPS app worldwide, Google’s Gemini will have a huge audience to either surprise or fail with its AI capabilities.
Google hopes the AI features will become a showcase that helps offer Gemini a competitive edge versus ChatGPT, in addition to making it more useful.
Inspired by OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT in late 2022, Google has been gradually releasing more technologies to ensure its products keep evolving amid the chaos AI is causing.
Google’s widely used search engine has undergone a redesign that emphasizes conversational responses and AI overviews over a list of pertinent web links in its results.
