48 hours with Google in California

Editor’s Note: Fisayo Fosudo is a visual storyteller, tech & finance creator based in Nigeria. This year, Google invited Fisayo to our annual developer conference held in Mountain View California to get closer to our products, new releases and AI demos. Here Fisayo lifts the lid on his trip and the creator experience on the ground.

Picture this: I'm just living my life on a Tuesday when an email pops up inviting me to Google’s most iconic event of the year: Google I/O. Just imagining the potential tech releases to be announced, I enthusiastically board the 18-hour flight and — many apple juices later — am in San Francisco with creators from all around the globe.

Ahead of the big day, I got the chance to visit the Google Campus and dig a little deeper into what they’re doing with AI (read on for that), as well as meet and learn from fellow creators — like the brilliant science creator Veritasium.

Here are a few highlights from the action at I/O.

The Gemini Live Campus Tour

One of the most engaging experiences was the Gemini Live Campus tour. Essentially, we got to play around with the different ways Gemini Live can be useful in life. For example, I just pointed my phone’s camera at this piece of art behind me and Gemini started to tell me pretty much everything about the artwork: when it was made, how it was made, the materials used and how long it took to make, all in a very conversational tone.

Demo Jam

We also got to play around with some of Google’s AI powered innovations. One thing that stood out was Android XR — a new operating system that was created in collaboration with Samsung, with the aim of bringing helpful experiences to headsets and glasses.

For example, the headsets they are launching will let you switch between being fully immersed in a virtual environment and being present in the real world. So it’s like you’re seeing your apps and content around you, but you’re still routed in your surroundings.

I also tried out the new glasses — fascinating to wear and look at. With Gemini here as well, you could have conversations about the things you’re seeing plus, you even get Google Maps.

Generative Media for Storytelling

This was one of the best bits for me as we got to see work from Google Labs (the place where you can discover and try out Google’s AI experimental products ), as well as hear from the Tech in Society teams. How AI and creativity overlap is always front of mind for me. And one of the ways this was brought to life was with....✨Veo 3✨.

Now, this is not just for creating videos, but for creating videos with sound. It’s accessible on flow.google — and with Flow, you can extend your generated video, going not just from text to video, but image to video and then ingredients to video (ingredients being multiple images). I left with a better idea of how to take storytelling to the next level using AI.

The Cloud Space

For my followers in business, you may or may not already be hooked up with Cloud but this session opened up how AI is helping businesses make better experiences.

For example, you can create images with Imagen all from a sketch to an almost life-like image.

We also tried Vertex AI and the demo monitored how accurate my football kick was (not bad).

So that’s the short version of a very long but intellectually stimulating couple of days with Google at their HQ.

For more footage from the trip head to my YouTube page.