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Google Launches AI Travel Enhancements for Search and Maps

Google Launches AI Travel Enhancements for Search and Maps

Google has unveiled a set of innovative tools designed to revolutionize the way travelers plan and navigate their trips. The tech giant’s latest updates to Google Search and Maps promise to provide users with personalized and seamless travel experiences. One of the standout features introduced is the AI-powered trip itinerary creation tool within Google Search.

Google Launches AI Travel Enhancements for Search and Maps

Image Source: fastcompany.com

Users opting into this experimental feature can now prompt Google Search to generate detailed itineraries for specific destinations. These itineraries include flight and hotel options, along with recommendations for attractions and dining experiences. Leveraging a wealth of data from across the web, user reviews, and photos, Google’s AI algorithms curate personalized travel plans that cater to individual preferences.

Moreover, users can easily export these trip ideas to Gmail, Docs, or Maps, streamlining the planning process further. Although currently available only in English within the U.S., Google’s ongoing experiments with generative AI showcase its commitment to enhancing user experiences and shaping the future of travel planning.

Recommendations and Customizable Lists in Google Maps

In addition to AI-driven trip itineraries, Google Maps is receiving a significant upgrade aimed at enriching users’ exploration of destinations. The app now offers detailed recommendations from locals and trusted publishers like The Infatuation, presenting users with curated lists of trending, top-rated, and hidden gem restaurants.

Furthermore, a new AI-based feature within Google Maps provides users with key photos and summarized reviews of places, facilitating informed decision-making while exploring unfamiliar locations. Users can also organize their lists within the app, linking them to social media content for added context and sharing capabilities.

Threats and Opportunities in the Travel Tech Landscape

As Google continues to expand its suite of travel tools, industry analysts speculate on the implications for smaller companies and established players like Tripadvisor. With Google’s vast resources and cutting-edge AI technologies, competitors face the challenge of staying relevant and innovative in an increasingly AI-driven travel landscape.

The integration of translation capabilities into Google’s Circle to Search tool further enhances its utility for travelers navigating language barriers. This feature, set to roll out on select Android devices, exemplifies Google’s commitment to empowering users with seamless and inclusive travel experiences.

In conclusion, Google’s latest AI-powered travel tools represent a significant leap forward in redefining how travelers plan, explore, and experience the world. While posing challenges for competitors, these innovations offer unparalleled convenience and customization, setting a new standard for the future of travel tech.

Google to Reward $25 Million to the Winners of AI Impact Challenge 2019

Artificial Intelligence holds a great contribution to the world of technology. But like the sci-fi movies, the AI has got various hazardous impacts to the world, too. Maybe thinking of that, Google is inspired to obtain something better from the AI, and at an event called AI for Social Good, held at the company’s Sunnyvale, California office, it announced a competition for the AI developers, called the AI Impact Challenge.

Google
Image Source: express.co.uk

According to the announcement, the competition will include non-profit organizations, like universities and colleges, and the other organizations that are not related to the corporate world. The teams will participate in the competition with ideas that will focus on solving social problems with the help of AI.

Google will provide the participants with cloud resources for their projects, and the winners will be rewarded with an amount of $25 million. The initiative is a part of Google’s charitable unit Google.org. The company has said that the participants can be professional AI experts or maybe with no AI skills, as the company will provide the competitors with guides who will help them with their projects. During the event, Google said, “An international panel of experts, who work in computer science and the social sector will assess the proposals to select top winners in the spring of 2019.”

The initiative taken by Google is a part of the ‘AI for Social Good’ and will address the issues like data security, environmental conservation, human trafficking, health care, and other serious issues like controversial military works. In the competition, the participants will be finding the best solution for those issues, using the AI.

Google’s artificial intelligence chief, Jeff Dean, said, “Artificial intelligence is not just helping people create more useful products, we use it in a lot of ways throughout many Google products but is also emerging as a really powerful tool for improving the society that we live in.”

Google is accepting the applications for the competition from today, and the names of the accepted grantees will be announced at the Google I/O developer conference next year. Also, after the competition, the participants may receive some job offers from the Google AI research centres, established earlier this year, in places like France and Ghana, etc.