Google Tensor G3: The new chip that gives your Pixel an AI upgrade
This past year we’ve seen incredible AI breakthroughs and innovations — but a lot of those are built on the kind of compute power only available in a data center. To bring the transformative power of AI to your everyday life, we need to make sure you can access it from the device you use every day. That's why we're so excited that the latest Pixel phone features our latest custom silicon chip: Tensor G3.
Our third-generation Google Tensor G3 chip continues to push the boundaries of on-device machine learning, bringing the latest in Google AI research directly to our newest phones: Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.
Our work with Tensor has never been about speeds and feeds, or traditional performance metrics. It’s about pushing the mobile computing experience forward. And in our new Tensor G3 chip, every major subsystem has been upgraded, paving the way for on-device generative AI. It includes the latest generation of ARM CPUs, an upgraded GPU, new ISP and Imaging DSP and our next-gen TPU, which was custom-designed to run Google’s AI models.
Compared to the first generation of Tensor on Pixel 6, our latest phones run more than twice as many machine learning models on-device. The models themselves are also more sophisticated. That’s a massive jump in a short time, and it means that machine learning models now enhance just about every aspect of Pixel’s user experience. And that’s just the beginning.
With the growth of generative AI and our partnership with Google DeepMind, we have a unique opportunity to bring some of those capabilities to Pixel. But of course, on-device generative AI is really complex: 150 times more complex than the most complex model on Pixel 7 just a year ago. Tensor G3 is up for the task, with its efficient architecture co-designed with Google Research.
New advances in speech and language
One area you’ll also see Tensor G3 hard at work is with Pixel’s speech and natural language understanding.
Now you’ll also be able to talk to Google Assistant more effortlessly. You can speak at your own pace — it even understands pauses and “um”s. We combined Google’s state-of-the-art speech recognition with server-quality natural language understanding.
Pixel 8 is the first phone to use the same text-to-speech model that Google uses in data centers. This allows us to use Pixel to read webpages aloud, and even translate them into a different language.
A major upgrade for your photos and videos
Tensor G3 is all about improving performance while running efficiently. Recording a video is a perfect example of this, where every part of our system on a chip (SOC) is used, and every part benefits from the chip-wide revamp. We’ve optimized the camera pipeline and built machine learning algorithms directly into the silicon, making Live-HDR capable of capturing higher detail, with improved colors, contrast and dynamic range to videos on Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. Combining all of this with new camera sensors, new machine learning models and new camera software gives you the best video experience ever on a Pixel — all while using less power.
Plus, Tensor G3 continues to deliver major Google innovations in computational photography. With an update to Magic Eraser 1 on Pixel 8 Pro, you can now remove larger distractions with on-device models that better predict backgrounds to create a higher-quality photo. We achieve this quality by applying generative AI-based inpainting to the problem.
There are so many more photo and video capabilities coming to Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro with Tensor G3. Like Best Take, 2 which uses a diverse set of advanced machine learning models on-device to combine multiple images and help everyone look their best, and Audio Magic Eraser, which lets you reduce distracting sounds in your videos. 3
Keeping your phone and information safe
Last but not least, Tensor G3 continues our tradition of keeping your phone private and secure. Tensor G3 has the Tensor security core built-in and it works with the Titan M2 security chip, which makes Pixel even more resilient to sophisticated attacks. And thanks to new machine learning advancements, Face Unlock on Pixel 8 now meets the strongest Android biometric class and can be used for banking app sign-in and payment apps like Google Wallet.
So that’s Tensor G3: more helpful, more efficient and more powerful than ever before.
