Google’s new Agent will power Mercedes’ next in-car AI assistant

Google Cloud released its new Automotive AI Agent on Monday and has named the Mercedes-Benz CLA as the first car model to offer it later this year. The Agent will enable Mercedes' MBUX Virtual Assistant to perform a wider array of conversational functions with the vehicle's passengers.

We got our first look at Mercedes' next generation assistant a year ago, at CES 2024, though the company did not reveal which large language model underpinned its capabilities at the time. This new assistant differs from the existing MBUX that can activate around two dozen in-car commands and provide information sourced from ChatGPT and Bing. While the current generation assistant can be activated by stating "Hey, Mercedes," it functions more like Siri or Google Assistant than ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode, offering static responses rather than conversational replies.

Google TV will soon get Gemini’s AI smarts

Starting later in 2025, yelling at your TV will finally accomplish something thanks to a new Google initiative announced Monday ahead of CES 2025. The company plans to incorporate its Gemini AI models into the Google TV experience as a means to “make interacting with your TV more intuitive and helpful.”

Google claims that this “will make searching through your media easier than ever, and you will be able to ask questions about travel, health, space, history, and more, with videos in the results for added context,” the company wrote in its announcement blog post. Google had previously forfeited a significant chunk of its market value after its Gemini prototype, dubbed Bard, flubbed its space-based response during the model's first public demo in 2023. Google also had to pause the AI's image-generation feature in early 2024, after it started outputting racially offensive depictions of people of color.

You’ll never guess what Google’s ‘biggest focus’ will be in 2025

Google plans to prioritize scaling its Gemini AI for consumers in the new year, CEO Sundar Pichai told employees during a strategy meeting held earlier this month. The company is facing increased competition from rivals like Perplexity and OpenAI as emerging AI technologies reinvent web search. The company has come under added scrutiny from federal regulators as well this year.

“I think 2025 will be critical,” Pichai remarked to employees assembled at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, as well as those attending virtually. “I think it’s really important we internalize the urgency of this moment, and need to move faster as a company. The stakes are high. These are disruptive moments. In 2025, we need to be relentlessly focused on unlocking the benefits of this technology and solve real user problems.”