Google Assistant plans a return to its former glory with the help of Artificial Intelligence

I’ve been on a warpath against Google Assistant this year both in my home and in my highly opinionated pieces here on Chrome Unboxed. Google’s once golden child has become dumber than a box of rocks, and most of our readers agree whole heartedly each time we have this discussion.

Assistant has fallen from grace

Between doing the opposite of what you tell it to, to not hearing what you say even if you’re right in front of it, to the worst offender thus far, flat out saying “I don’t know, but I found these results on the web”, effectively making itself a glorified voice controlled desktop PC instead of a glanceable, hands-free Jarvis.

Each time I rip Google a new one for its terrible dip in quality, I remark about how Assistant will likely endure more pitfalls and pullback in progress due to the massive layoffs the tech giant put that division though before ultimately gutting it out and replacing its brain and heart with artificial intelligence.

But it’s planning a massive comeback

Well, it looks like I was right, and had accurately predicted this all along! According to Axios, Google does, indeed, plan to ‘supercharge’ Assistant with AI like ChatGPT and Bard. Ever since the company laid off all of those employees to shift its focus over to generative AI, it was pretty darn obvious that this was the plan from the outset.

Axios states that some work on the revamped Assistant has already begun, and that the effects of this monumental shift will first be seen on mobile before eventually making their way to desktop. In an email that went out to the remaining Assistant employees (a few dozen were laid off out of thousands), VP Peeyush Ranjan and product director Dule Dukellis stated that Google itself is “deeply committed to Assistant”, and “optimistic about its bright future ahead”.

It will hopefully remain a household name

I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it again – Assistant is a household name. The name must stay, but that doesn’t mean the rest does. Replacing the essence of Assistant with something more competent and forward-thinking that’s deeply seated in AI is the right move, and I can’t wait to see what comes of it. Perhaps it will finally become the Jarvis we’ve always expected it to be, and hopefully it will never become more than that.