Google has been showering us with new AI features all throughout the year. While some of them have dropped the ball hard, others boost the Google experience. Today, Google is pushing some new AI features to both Android and iOS.

What new AI features is Google launching?

Some of these features augment the Google Lens experience. Lens has come a long way since its launch back in 2017. While it’s been improving over the years, things really took off when Google introduced it to Gemini. One of the new features coming to Lens was rumored previously. You can now ask questions in Lens using a video.

Open Lens, point your camera a what you want to ask a question about, and hold your finger down on the capture button. This will start recording a video. While the video is recording, you can ask the question. For example, you can point your phone at the aurora borealis and ask “Why does this happen” while it’s recording. You’ll then get an AI Overview of your answer. Along with the overview, you’ll also see typical Google results.

This is coming to the Google app in both Android and iOS.

Shopping

This next feature will help out all of the shopaholics out there. Before, when you’d take a picture of an item, it would surface visually similar images. However, after the update, Google will show you information about the item like the price, reviews, ratings, and where to buy it. This makes it so much easier to buy the items that you see in the real world.

Identifying music/Circle to Search expansion

A new update to Circle to Search will make it so much easier to identify the music that’s playing in your environment. If you hear some music that you want to identify, just summon Gemini. It will then identify the music and surface the results. This makes it easier to identify music without needing to leave the app that you’re using.

As a bonus, Google announced that Circle to Search is now making it to more devices. It’s coming to 150 million Android devices.

Organized search page

There are searches that don’t have a definitive answer. Google gave the example of “Vegetarian appetizers for a party.” This week, the company is rolling out search results pages organized with AI. It’s starting off with food-related results.

You’ll see carousels of suggestions for meals that you can prepare. Each item will have information like the rating and a source link.

Ads in AI Overviews

Lastly, Google is bringing sponsored results to AI Overviews. When you do a search, you’ll see links to relevant sites. The company says that this has been positively received, so more people will see this feature as time goes on.

You can save big on one of our favorite Bluetooth speakers in this early October Prime Day deal. The Marshall Emberton II is a stylish rectangular wireless speaker with a balanced output and 360-degree sound. Usually going for $170, it’s available in this Prime Day deal for a mere $100.

Marshall

Save $70 on Marshall’s surprisingly potent Bluetooth speaker.

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$100 at Amazon

The first thing you’ll notice about the Marshall Emberton II is its style, which draws on the company’s history and looks like a scaled-down Marshall amp. Front and center is its vintage-looking metal grille, with the company’s iconic logo prominently displayed. You can order the device in black and cream, both on sale for the same price.

More than looks, though, the Emberton II has upgraded specs from the first-generation model that make it an even better value (especially at this sale price). It has a pair of 10-watt full-range drivers and passive radiators that deliver imposing sound for its size. It isn’t the most room-thumping speaker, with its tuning focusing more on a balanced sound signature than eardrum-blasting power. (But it’s still plenty loud for most uses.)

Like its predecessor, it supports 360-degree sound for a multidirectional experience. If you buy a pair, you can stack them together wirelessly using Marshall’s companion app for more immersive listening. Even if you already own one, its $100 sale price could be an excellent opportunity to get a second and try linking them.

The speaker lasts over 30 hours per charge and can recharge to full in three hours. It has an IP67 dust / water rating, meaning it’s rated for up to 30 minutes of immersion in a few feet of water. The Emberton II only weighs 118 g (4.2 oz).

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice in the lead up to October Prime Day 2024.

AI governance company Credo AI launched a new platform that integrates with third-party AI Ops and business tools to gain better visibility around responsible AI policies. 

Credo AI’s Integrations Hub, now generally available, lets enterprise clients connect platforms where they build generative AI applications like Amazon Sagemaker, MLFlow and Microsoft Dynamics 365 to a centralized governance platform. Platforms where these applications are often deployed, like to Asana, ServiceNow or Jira can also be added to Integrations Hub. 

The idea is that enterprises working on AI applications can use Integrations Hub to connect to a central governance platform like Credo AI’s governance platform. Instead of needing to upload documentation proving safety and security standards, the Integrations Hub will collect metadata from the applications that contain those metrics. 

Credo AI said Integrations Hub will directly connect with existing model stores, which are then automatically uploaded to the governance platform for compliance checks. The hub will also bring in datasets for governance purposes. 

Navrina Singh, founder and CEO of Credo AI, told VentureBeat that the integrations hub was designed to make AI governance, whether following data disclosure rules or internal policies around AI usage, become part of the development process at the very beginning. 

“All the organizations that we work with, primarily Global 2000 [companies], are adopting AI at a very fast pace and are bringing in new breeds of AI tools,” Singh said. “When we looked across all the enterprises, one of the key things we wanted to enable for them was to extract the maximum value of their AI bets and make governance really easy, so they stop making excuses that it’s difficult to do.”

Credo AI’s Integrations Hub will include ready connections with Jira, ServiceNow, Amazon’s SageMaker and Bedrock, Salesforce, MLFlow, Asana, Databricks, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Azure Machine Learning, Weights & Biases, Hugging Face and Collibra. Any additional integrations can be customized for an additional fee. 

Governance at the onset

Surveys have shown that responsible AI and AI governance, which normally looks at how applications meet any regulations, ethical considerations and privacy checkups, have become top of mind for many companies. However, these same surveys point out that there are few companies that assessed these risks. 

As enterprises grapple with how to be more responsible around generative AI, providing ways for organizations to easily figure out risks and compliance issues has become a new niche for many companies. Credo AI is just one of the companies offering different avenues to make responsible AI easily accessible.

IBM’s Watsonx suite of products includes a governance platform that lets users evaluate models for accuracy, bias and compliance. Collibra also released a suite of AI tools around governance that creates workflows to document and monitor AI programs. 

Credo AI does check applications for potential brand risks like accuracy. Still, it positions its platforms more as a means to meet current laws around automated platforms and any potential new regulation that would come out. 

There are still very few regulations around generative AI, though there have always been policies governing data privacy and data retention that some enterprises would have already been following thanks to machine learning or data rules.

Singh said there are some geographies that do ask enterprises for reports around AI governance. She pointed to New York City Law 144, legislation prohibiting automated tools for employment decisions. 

“There are certain technical evidence you have to collect, like a metric called demographic parity ratio. Credo AI takes this New York City law and codifies it to check your AI Ops system, and since it’s connected to your policies and to where you built your HR system, we can collect that metadata to meet the requirements of the law,” Singh said. 

How have I only just found out that Netflix has quietly canceled the best zombie show Black Summer? Sadly, I’m not surprised, given just how many cancelations I’ve seen these days and how few people streamed it. But it still deserves the same praise as other creature features and I’m going to celebrate this fact by re-watching it.

Funnily enough, I discovered this news after writing about five shows canceled by Netflix in 2024 so far that you should still watch, so I’ll be going back to update this – make sure to bookmark the article to find out what else makes the cut.