Palo Alto, California— Google Maps is taking a new path guided by artificial intelligence (AI).
The change announced Thursday will bring more of the revolutionary AI technology that Google has already been integrating the digital map service into its dominant search engine which the internet company launched almost 20 years ago as part of its efforts to expand to new frontiers.
Google Maps recently exceeded 2,000 million monthly users worldwide for the first time, a milestone that illustrates how much people depend on the service for directions during their daily trips and excursions to new places. With the introduction of the Gemini technology powered by AI From Google, maps are now set to become entertainment guides as well as navigation tools.
Starting this week, users in the United States will be able to chat with Google Maps to ask for advice on things to do around specific places in a neighborhood or city and receive lists of nearby restaurants, bars and other attractions that include reviews that have been compiled over the years. The new features will also provide more detailed information about parking options near a designated destination along with walking directions that a user can check after exiting the car.
“We are entering a new era of maps,” he said. Miriam Daniel, general manager of Google Maps, to reporters Wednesday during a preview of the features unveiled in Palo Alto, California. “We are transforming how you navigate and explore the world”.
Google Maps is also trying to address complaints by introducing more detailed images that will make it easier to see which lane of the road to be in well in advance before having to make a turn.
In another AI twist, Google Maps will allow third-party developers to access the language models underlying its Gemini technology to ask questions about specific destinations, such as apartments or restaurants, and get answers to their queries in seconds. Google says this new feature, which will initially go through a testing phase, has undergone a fact-checking procedure it calls “substantiation.”
Google’s Waze Maps, which focuses exclusively on real-time driving directions, will use AI to offer a conversational way for its approximately 180 million monthly users to announce road hazards and other problems that could affect travel times.
The decision to incorporate AI into a service that so many rely on to get from one point to another reflects Google’s growing confidence in its ability to prevent its Gemini technology from providing false or misleading information, also known as “hallucinations,” to users. . Google’s AI has already been caught hallucinating in some of the summaries that started appearing in May, including the advice to put glue on pizza and the claim that the fourth president of the United States, James Madison, graduated from the University of Wisconsin, located in a city named after him.