Google for India 2024 Highlights: Gemini Live in regional languages, GPay gold loans, India’s 1st GSEC, and more

Android users in India will automatically be blocked from installing apps from unverified sources with a new security feature that Google plans to roll out on a pilot-basis in India over the weeks ahead. Speaking to indianexpress.com, Eugene Liderman, director, Mobile Security Strategy, Google, said, "When a user tries to install an app on their phone, Google Play Protect will do two things: first, it will check the source of the installation—whether it’s coming from a browser, a messaging app, or a file manager—and then determine whether the app is requesting permissions that are highly correlated with financial fraud." Read more about the new security feature here.

“The more we expand the types of questions that search can answer, the more people expect that we can actually do better in serving them. So part of our responsibility as Google is to keep pace with these user expectations and technology advancements. Both of these are constantly changing,” Hema Budaraju told indianexpress.com on the sidelines of Google For India. Click here to read more on what the top Google exec said.

"Technology and AI is going to be the biggest binder of the unification of India and to bridge the gaps of diversities. With data-driven decision-making, it will be bring about revolutionary change to India's future," said Union Minister of Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

Google previewed Project Astra with a demo where an AI assistant recognised through video and explained the different parts of a Formula 1 car that had been sketched out. We're not sure if it was a scripted or unscripted demo.

Google has launched the AI Skills House, a learning programme with AI courses for students, job seekers, educators, developers, and civil officials. Some of the courses being offered are Introduction to Generative Al, Introduction to Responsible AI and Introduction to Large Language Models. They will be available for free on YouTube and the Google Cloud Skills Boost platform. “These courses are available in English, and will extend to seven Indian languages soon. Google is also bringing the Google AI Essentials and GenAI for Educators courses to Hindi speakers,” it said.

Google announced long-term partnerships with the Adani Group and CleanMax to advance its sustainability goals in India. As part of these partnerships, a 61.4 MW solar-wind hybrid plant will be set up in Khavda, Gujarat, as well as 6 MW solar plant in Rajasthan and 59.4 MW wind plant in Karnataka. "Together, these are expected to add 186 MW of new clean energy generation capacity to the Indian grid by 2026," Google said.

Indian organisations spanning all sectors will have the option to store customer data and conduct machine learning processing for Gemini 1.5 Flash entirely within India," says Bedi, mentioning that some workloads may have legal guardrails to ensure that sensitive data of Indian citizens stays within Indian shores. "This provides even greater control and security for organisations using our most-advanced AI models."

"We're bringing together Gemini models and Beckn-enabled open networks together. What this means for you as a consumer is that no matter what you are searching for, you can discover listings and make transactions smoothly on any Beckn network-compliant app in the language of your choice," says Bikram Bedi, vice president and country MD, Google Cloud India.

"Google Play Protect to automatically scan and detect emerging threats. It has already identified 10 million malicious apps globally. We are soon piloting enhanced fraud protection feature within Google Play Protect. If a user attempts to install an app from a file manager or messaging app or web browser that may access sensitive permissions, Google Play Protect will automatically block these apps," Bhardwaj says, adding that 900,000 apps have been blocked this way in Singapore.

"We've been using AI to strengthen scam mitigation measures. We are focusing on proactive mitigation on Google Pay powered by our cutting edge AI and ML models,"Snigdha Bhardwaj, director, search and generative AI trust strategy, Google.

"Since last year we've prevented scams of over Rs 13,000 crore and issued 40 million warnings to safeguard Indian users. On Google Maps, AI-powered solutions helped us remove 170 million policy violating reviews," she says.

In partnership with Eka Care, ABHA ID cards will be accessible to six million via the Google Wallet app. ABHA ID holders will be required to authenticate themselves through fingerprint or password to add or access their health ID in Google Wallet.

Google's health research team has supported NHA to build tools that helps developers easily integrate with the machine architecture, Patel says, while inviting Kiran Gopal Viska, the mission director of ABDM (Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission) on stage.

"By leveraging technology, our mission is to bridge the gap between patients and healthcare providers, streamline processes, and ultimately lead to a paradigm shift in healthcare in India. By fostering interoperability and connecting stakeholders, we aim to reduce fragmentation and increase transparency. This will make how healthcare is provided more efficient and patient-centric," Viska says.

Google has joined hands with Apollo to build more than 800 "health knowledge panels" on Search in Hindi and English.

Bakul Patel, senior director, global digital health and regulatory strategy at Google, takes the stage to discuss how the company is using AI in health products. "We want to marshall Google's health solutions that will work for people in diverse settings and languages." "Our most accurate heart rate sensor in the recently released Pixel Watch 3 uses AI to provide actionable insights for your fitness goals," he says.

Gold loans will be available to Google Pay users across the country from now. The offering is in partnership with Muthoot Finance. "People across India can now access this credit product, with affordable interest rates and exible usage options – delivering exibility to the borrower, and security to the lender."

Two out of every three transactions on Google Pay culminate in other apps and in terms of merchant payments, more than 90 per cent end outside of Google Pay, says Sharath Bulusu, director, product management, Google India. Interoperability by design means a new product can win the hearts of users regardless of when they launch. With the launch of UPI Circle, it enables users to delegate payments to friends and family.

More than 5 crore Google Pay users checked their CIBIL score. Partnerships with Indian banks led to credit access to more than 13,000 pincodes, Bulusu says.

For businesses, Google is launching Product Studio where a local artisan, for instance, can use Google's AI model to create videos of their prodcuts. We are also making it easier for merchants to update their profiles with AI-generated business descriptions, says Budaraju.

Lastly, merchants can now integrate WhatsApp to engage with customers on Google Search. India is one of the first markets where we are rolling this out, she says.

With Google Lens, users will now be able to use Lens to search with a video and ask more complex questions

about things in motion. Google Search’s custom Gemini model will make sense of the video and provide a helpful AI Overview with links to learn more. This capability will soon be available for Search Labs users enrolled in the “AI Overviews and more” experiment, with support for mobile English queries.

"Gemini is helping us re-imagine Google Search for you. A powerful example of this is AI Overviews. We are building it thoughtfully to help you access information and perspectives from a diverse range of sources," says Hema Budaraju, adding that feedback from users has been positive. It was rolled out with English and Hindi support in India two months ago.

Today, the company is expanding its Gen AI experience in Search to Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, and Tamil in the coming weeks. "AI Overviews help users quickly nd what they need on Search, with links to referenced web pages to go deeper."

Gemini Live, which was first unveiled at the Pixel launch in August, will be rolled out in Hindi and will support eight other Indian languages (Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, and Urdu) in the coming weeks. With this feature, Indian users can interrupt, ask follow up questions, and have a more free-flowing conversation with the Gemini AI model.

Hema Budaraju, senior director, product management, Google India, is on stage explaining how Google's AI model Gemini can be used in the Indian context. "Not just students, this can be a gamechanger for teachers, entrepreneurs, everyone. We are making it more accessible with your voice. Over 40 per cent of Gemini Indian language users are already using their voice to get inspiration."

The whitepaper is titled “AI Opportunity Agenda for India” whitepaper that is meant to server as a roadmap to help "deliver on the government’s India AI Mission by focussing on three key priorities – investing in innovation infrastructure, building an AI-ready workforce, and promoting inclusive adoption and accessibility."

- Progress of every individual

- Progress of India's AI ecosystem

- Progress for the future

"India's AI-fueled leap has the power to unlock economic value to the tune of Rs 33 lakh crore by 2030. What's more, it has the power to propel an entire generation of Indians towards escape velocity," Chobey says, while offering Miko.AI, i-Saksham, and Agrost as examples.

Roma Datta Chobey, managing director of Google India, kicks off the tenth edition of Google for India 2024. "Remember those days, when booking a train ticket meant hours in line or paying bills was a day-long task. In the past 20 years, India has surged forward with Google in step," she says. "India's digital revolution is rewriting the rules with the world's lowest data cost, video is the gateway, UPI has revolutionised payments, and orders are being delivered in under ten minutes.

Off late, Google Maps has been looking to step up its game in India since ride-hailing service Ola launched its own mapping solution. Recently, it introduced a bunch of India-centric features including flyover callouts and metro ticket booking features in a few Indian cities. It also cut prices for Indian developers who use its Maps API for their apps. So, we can definitely expect more Google Maps features for India today.

We're just 30 minutes from the Google for India 2024 event with Roma Datta Chobey, the managing director of Google India, mostly kicking things off. Besides AI upgrades, we could see Google announcing partnerships with Indian companies to drive AI adoption among merchants and enterprises here.

Roughly two months ago, Google rolled out its controversial AI overviews Search feature in India. With this feature, Indian users can see AI-generated summaries in Hindi and English on Google Search. Why controversial? AI Overviews had to initially be put on hold after users posted screenshots of factually inaccurate and misleading AI-generated answers. From today onwards, we might see these AI-generated answers to search queries in more Indian languages.

In August this year, Google unveiled a new AI feature called Gemini Live which lets you interrupt and have a more free-flowing conversation with its AI model. While it has only been rolled out in English so far, it remains to be seen if Gemini Live will be expanded to cover Hindi and other Indian languages at today's event.

The invite for the tenth edition of the Google for India event is a 3D miniature version of the indoor venue. Pretty cool.

Feeling 10/10 at the 10th edition of #googleforindiahttps://t.co/BcOqMVlDExpic.twitter.com/J4JoSzw3W5

— Google India (@GoogleIndia) October 3, 2024

We're here at the press gathering for the Google for India event in New Delhi. Will it be another pre-recorded presentation like last year or will we get to see some live demos on stage? Stay tuned to find out.

Here are the top execs slated to address the gathering at the tenth edition of Google for India:

- Roma Datta Chobey, managing director, Google India

- Hema Budaraju, senior director, product management, Google India

- Sharath Bulusu, director, product management, Google India

- Bakul Patel, senior director, global digital health and regulatory strategy at Google

- Snigdha Bhardwaj, director, search and generative AI trust strategy, Google

- Bikram Bedi, vice president and country MD, Google Cloud India

- Giorgio Fortunato, head of clean energy and power, Asia Pacific

- Vikram Khosla, vice president, marketing, Google India

- Dr Manish Gupta, director, Google Deepmind

This is the tenth year in which Google is hosting this annual event where generative AI is expected to yet again expected to take centre stage. More specifically, it is likely that Google will announce the expansion of certain Gemini AI features to India. How many new Indian languages will have Gemini Live support is something we'll be keeping an eye on. AI overview in Google Search, which was rolled out in India a month ago, could also be expanded to cover more Indian languages.

In a few hours from now, Google will kick off its annual event where it is expected to showcase new features and product updates that have been developed keeping in mind India's unique needs. The live stream will commence from 11: 30 am IST onwards and Google has also set up a separate live stream with Indian Sign Language (ISL) interpretation. "On October 3rd, we will be sharing our vision for the next chapter of India’s internet journey: from access to the internet, to success on the internet with the help of AI," the tech giant said.