Google kicks off software season this week with The Android Show: I/O Edition. Across its announcements is one core message: Google is Gemini now, and Gemini is Google.
This isn’t news for anyone who’s done a Google Search or tried to write a paper in Google Docs recently. The company has been on an AI journey for a while, ramping up significantly over the past year. But even I was surprised at the depth to which Google was betting its future on Gemini.
Android 17 is the latest mobile OS that will likely be released this summer, with the new Samsung Galaxy foldables and Google’s Pixel smartphones. But you may come to know it better as the shell for Gemini Intelligence, a revamped AI assistant that can get to know you and run tasks without oversight. It’s a move that’s part of its plan to build a truly AI-first smartphone — a dream that not just Google is chasing. OpenAI is reportedly working on an AI agent-filled phone, and Perplexity and Deutsche Telekom have one, too.
Google also announced a new line of computers called Googlebooks. The new devices are built with Gemini at their core. Gemini is always lurking, with a new feature called magic pointer. A quick shake of your cursor and Gemini will pop up with contextual AI suggestions. If you’re hovering over an email with event info, Gemini will ask if you want it to add the info to your calendar. An accidental bump of your mouse will have Gemini asking if you want it to create an AI slop composite image of the pics on your screen. (How long until that gets unbearably annoying?)
The continued investment in AI isn’t surprising. Google has never been tentative when it comes to AI, for good reason. Its DeepMind research lab had years of machine learning and AI research under its belt, giving it a boost over other tech leaders like Microsoft and Meta. While I’m sure Google would’ve liked to have been responsible for the “ChatGPT moment,” it was prepared to meet that moment.
What is surprising is the fervor and ubiquity with which it is integrating Gemini. Google is now betting its entire future on AI. And that bet seems to be based on the underlying assumption that we want all these AI-native devices and software. That hasn’t been true up to this point.
AI integrations in software programs have often been seen as additions, either welcomed or unwanted, not a major selling point. People who want AI to help with their online browsing or work use agents through chatbots like Claude or ChatGPT. Very few people are buying new devices to access advanced AI features — CNET found in 2025 that 3 in 10 smartphone buyers don’t find mobile AI helpful and don’t want to see more added. That’s thousands of potential Android phone owners.
So is Google hoping this news will change our minds, or has it assumed it already has? I fear it’s the latter.
This news certainly isn’t great for those of us who are sick of seeing Gemini everywhere. I’m hopeful that some of it will be useful, and the rest of it can be disabled. (Though the ever-enraging presence of AI summaries in Google Search doesn’t give me much hope.) But this all poses a bigger question: If AI is all Google is now, what happens to the people who don’t want it?
