Google is bringing generative AI technology to shopping, aiming to get a jump on e-commerce sites like Amazon.com Inc.<\/p>\n
The Alphabet Inc.-owned company announced features Wednesday aimed at helping people understand how apparel will fit on them, no matter their body size, and added capabilities for\u00a0finding products using its search and image-recognition technology.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Google introduced new ways to research travel destinations and map routes using generative AI \u2014 technology that can craft text, images or even video from simple prompts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make Google the place for consumers to come shop, as well as the place for merchants to connect with consumers,\u201d Maria Renz, Google\u2019s vice president of commerce, said in an interview ahead of the announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always been committed to an open ecosystem and a healthy web, and this is one way where we\u2019re bringing this technology to bear across merchants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Google is the world\u2019s dominant search engine, but 46% of respondents in a\u00a0survey<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0of US shoppers conducted last year said they still started their product searches and research on Amazon, according to the research firm CivicScience.<\/p>\n TikTok, too, is making inroads, CivicScience\u2019s research found \u2014 18% of Gen Z online shoppers turn to the platform first.<\/p>\n Google is taking note, with some of its new, AI-powered shopping exploration features aimed at capturing younger audiences.<\/p>\n A new virtual \u201ctry-on\u201d feature, launching on Wednesday, will let people see how clothes fit across a range of body types, from XXS to 4XL sizes.<\/p>\n Apparel\u00a0will be overlaid on top of images of diverse models that the company photographed while developing the capability.<\/p>\n Google said it\u00a0was able to launch such a service because of a new image-based AI model that it developed internally, and the company is\u00a0releasing a new research paper detailing its work alongside the announcement.<\/p>\n The depictions of the clothing take\u00a0into consideration the way fabric stretches and winkles as it\u2019s worn to produce lifelike images. The try-on feature will start with\u00a0women\u2019s tops, in partnership with retailers like Anthropologie and Everlane, followed by\u00a0men\u2019s clothing later.<\/p>\n The company also said it will begin\u00a0pulling in more sources of information as people test\u00a0out its new \u201csearch generative experience\u201d \u2014 a service that Google\u00a0first announced at its I\/O developers conference last month. For now, that\u00a0offering is\u00a0only available through the company\u2019s experimental Search Labs product.<\/p>\n Google earlier announced that it was using a variety of web-based sources to display AI-generated information on, say, the best hotel for families at a particular vacation destination or the best waterproof Bluetooth speaker.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s also adding in user reviews for its AI model to draw on as well.<\/p>\n The company is rolling out new additions to existing features on Google Maps, too.<\/p>\n Immersive view, which uses AI to show people 3D tours of landmarks, is rolling out to four new cities:\u00a0Amsterdam and\u00a0Dublin, as well as Florence and Venice in Italy.<\/p>\n Google is\u00a0expanding its collection of landmarks available on immersive view to more than 500 \u2014 on both the iOS and Android\u00a0apps \u2014\u00a0adding in such destinations as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Prague Castle.<\/p>\n Glanceable directions, meanwhile, will let people see turn-by-turn directions for walking, cycling and driving modes from their phone lock screens.<\/p>\n Google said people will also be able to see updated ETAs as they follow their routes in real time.<\/p>\n That feature is rolling out globally in June.<\/p>\n Some AI features on Google Lens \u2014\u00a0the image-recognition app that uses a phone camera to identify objects and text \u2014\u00a0have been around for a while, like discovering the name of a local dish by snapping a photo of it while traveling.<\/p>\n But on Wednesday, Google said it is launching the ability for users to search for skin conditions using the app.<\/p>\n After a user takes a photo of a rash or a skin bump, Lens will find visual matches for the image that could help inform people\u2019s searches, the company said.<\/p>\n The feature is meant to be a starting point for research, not certified medical advice, Google said.<\/p>\n The Alphabet-owned company announced features Wednesday aimed at helping people understand how apparel will fit on them, no matter their body size, and added capabilities for\u00a0finding products using its search and image-recognition technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":496483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[35793,1163,84939,167,10412],"class_list":["post-496477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-ecommerce","tag-generative-ai","tag-google","tag-online-shopping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496477"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Now read: Model collapse \u2014 what happens when AI trains on AI-generated data<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"