Google Cloud Next 2024: Everything announced so far

Google’s Cloud Next 2024 event takes place in Las Vegas through Thursday, and that means plenty of new cloud-focused news on everything from Gemini, Google’s AI-powered chatbot, to AI to development and the safety. Last year’s event was the first in-person Cloud Next since 2019, and Google took the stage to demonstrate its continued commitment to AI with Duet AI for Gmail and several other debuts, as well as an expansion of genetic AI to its line of security products. in other enterprise-focused updates and debuts.

I don’t have time to watch the live stream of Google Cloud Next? Okay; we’ve summarized the most important parts of the event below.

Google Vids

Harnessing artificial intelligence to help customers develop creative content is something Big Tech is looking for, and on Tuesday, Google unveiled its version. Google Vids, a new AI-powered video creation tool, is the latest feature added to Google Workspace.

Here’s how it works: Google claims users can make videos alongside other Workspace tools like Docs and Sheets. The editing, writing and production are all there. You can also collaborate with colleagues in real time on Google Vids. read more

Vertex AI Agent Builder

We can all use a little help, right? Meet Google’s Vertex AI Agent Builder, a new tool that helps companies build AI agents.

“Vertex AI Agent Builder allows people to create agents very easily and quickly,” said Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. “You can build and deploy production-ready, productive AI chat agents and coach and mentor them the same way you do with humans to improve the quality and correctness of responses from models.”

To do this, the company uses a process called “grounding,” where responses are linked to what is considered a reliable source. In this case, it’s based on Google Search (which actually might or might not be accurate). read more

Gemini comes to databases

Google calls Gemini in Databases a collection of features that “simplify all aspects of the database journey.” In less fancy language, it’s a set of AI-based, developer-focused tools for Google Cloud customers who create, monitor, and migrate application databases. read more

Google is renewing its focus on data dominance

Image Credits: MirageC/Getty Images

Google has offered cloud dominance in the past, but is now focusing more on partnerships rather than building them on its own. read more

Security tools love AI

Google is rolling out its prolific AI-powered security tool train with a slew of new products and features aimed at large companies. These include Threat Intelligence, which can analyze large chunks of potentially malicious code. It also allows users to perform natural language searches for persistent threats or indicators of compromise. Another is Chronicle, Google’s cybersecurity telemetry offering for cloud customers to help with cybersecurity investigations. The third is the Security Command Center enterprise cyber security and risk management suite. read more

Gemini Code Assist

After reading about Google’s new Gemini Code Assist, a business-focused AI code completion and assistance tool, you might be wondering if it sounds familiar. And you would be right. TechCrunch senior editor Frederic Lardinois writes that “Google previously offered a similar service under the now-defunct Duet AI brand.” Then came Didymos. Code Assist is a direct competitor to GitHub’s Copilot Enterprise. Here’s why

Nvidia’s Blackwell platform

One of the expected announcements is the next generation of Nvidia’s Blackwell platform coming to Google Cloud in early 2025. Yes, that seems that far away. However, here’s what to expect: support for the high-performance Nvidia HGX B200 for AI and HPC workloads and GB200 NBL72 for training large language models (LLM). Oh, and we can reveal that the GB200 servers will be liquid cooled. read more

Google Workspace

Among the new features are voice prompts to launch the AI-powered Help Me Write feature in Gmail while you’re on the go. Another one for Gmail includes a way to instantly turn rough draft emails into a more polished email. In Sheets, you can send a customizable notification when a specific field changes. Meanwhile, a new set of templates makes it easy to start a new spreadsheet. For Doc fans, there is now support for tabs. That’s good because, according to the company, you can “organize information in a single document instead of linking to multiple documents or searching through Drive.” Of course, subscribers get the goodies first. read more

Google also appears to have plans to monetize two of its new AI features for its Google Workspace productivity suite. It will look like $10/month/user add-on packages. One will be for the new AI meetings and messaging plugin that takes notes for you, provides meeting summaries and translates content into 69 languages. The other is for the introduced the AI ​​Security Pack, which helps administrators keep Google Workspace content more secure. read more

Figure 2

In February, Google announced an image generator built into Gemini, Google’s AI-powered chatbot. The company pulled it shortly after it was found to be accidentally injecting gender and race diversity into prompts for people. This resulted in some offensive inaccuracies. While we’ve been waiting for a possible re-release, Google has come out with its improved image creation tool, Imagen 2. This is inside the Vertex AI developer platform and is more enterprise-focused. Imagen 2 is now generally available and comes with some fun new features including inpainting and outpainting. There is also Google calls it “images that turn into live text” where you can now create short four-second videos from text messages, according to AI-powered clip-making tools such as Airport runway, Spades and Irreverent Labs. read more

Chrome Enterprise Premium

Meanwhile, Google is expanding its Chrome Enterprise product suite with the release of Chrome Enterprise Premium. What’s new here is that it’s mostly about the security capabilities of the existing service, based on the knowledge that browsers are now the endpoints where most of the high-value work is done within a company. read more

Gemini 1.5 Pro

Image Credits: Google