Google is kicking off software season this week with the Android Show: I\/O Edition. Its announcements have one key message: Google is now Gemini, and Gemini is Google.<\/p>\n
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This isn’t news to anyone who has done a Google search or attempted to write a paper in Google Docs recently. Google has been on an AI journey for quite some time, with significant growth over the past year. But I was also surprised by how deeply Google was betting its future on Gemini.<\/p>\n
Android 17 is the latest mobile OS that will likely be released with the new Samsung Galaxy foldables and Google’s Pixel smartphones this summer. But you may know it better as the shell of Gemini Intelligence, a new AI assistant that can know you and run tasks without supervision. It’s a move that’s actually part of its plan to create truly AI-first smartphones \u2014 a dream that it’s not just Google that’s chasing. OpenAI is reportedly working on an AI agent-filled phone, and Perplexity and Deutsche Telekom also have one.<\/p>\n
Google also announced a new series of computers called Googlebooks. The new devices are built with Gemini at its core. Gemini always stays hidden with a new feature called Magic Pointer. A quick flick of your cursor and Gemini will pop up with relevant AI suggestions. If you’re scrolling through an email containing event information, Gemini will ask you if you want that information added to your calendar. With an accidental bump of your mouse, Gemini will ask you if you want it to create an AI sloped composite image of the pictures on your screen. (How long until this becomes unbearably annoying?)<\/p>\n
The continued investment in AI is not surprising. With good reason, Google has never been tentative when it comes to AI. Its DeepMind research lab had years of machine learning and AI research, giving it an edge over other tech leaders like Microsoft and Meta. Although I’m sure Google would have been responsible for the “ChatGPT moment”, it was ready to make that moment happen. <\/p>\n
What is surprising is the enthusiasm and omnipresence with which it is unifying Gemini. Google is now betting its entire future on AI. And the bet seems to be based on this implicit assumption that we want all these AI native tools and software. This is still not true. <\/p>\n <\/figure>\n AI integration into software programs is often viewed as welcomed or unwelcome additions, and not as a major selling point. People who want AI assistance in their online browsing or work use agents through the cloud or chatbots like ChatGPS. Fewer people are buying new devices to access advanced AI features \u2013 CNET found in 2025 that 3 in 10 smartphone buyers don’t find mobile AI helpful and don’t want more added. These are thousands of potential Android phone owners. <\/p>\n So is Google hoping this news will change our minds, or has it assumed it has already changed? I’m afraid it’s the latter.<\/p>\n This news is definitely not good for those of us who are tired of seeing Gemini everywhere. I hope some of it will be useful and the rest can be disabled. (Although the ever-increasing presence of AI summaries in Google Search doesn’t give me much hope.) But all this raises a bigger question: If Google is now just AI, what happens to the people who don’t want it?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n