By putting AI into everything, Google wants to make it invisible
technologyreview.comPublished: 5/21/2025
Summary
Those features were previously only seen in demos of Project Astra, a “universal AI assistant“ that Google DeepMind is working on. Now, Google is inching toward putting Project Astra into the hands of anyone with a smartphone. But with its existing ecosystem of consumer services and billions of existing users, Google has a clear advantage. Power users wanting access to the latest versions of everything on display can now sign up for Google AI Ultra for $250 a month. But by putting AI in everything, Google is turning AI into a technology we won’t notice and may not even bother to name.