Google reportedly plans to add new artificial intelligence (AI) technology to Chromebooks that can help people troubleshoot issues with connecting Bluetooth devices to their laptops, as part of its ongoing and fast-moving strategy to integrate AI into its products.
According to a published report, the virtual assistant, “BlueBuddy”, will provide quick and easy answers to user questions if they can’t get a Bluetooth device paired with their Chromebook, something that often is troublesome when using devices that leverage the wireless protocol.
The website Windows Report gleaned details of the virtual assistant from developer documentation for Google’s Chromium web browser project. The documentation made mention of something called “BlueBuddy” that would allow users to “enter an issue and I will recommend a fix.”
The addition of BlueBuddy is in line with various other AI features that Google already has unveiled for Chromebooks, which provide alternatives to Windows laptops and MacBooks and which run the lightweight ChromeOS. Google already has added its much improved Gemini AI chatbot to Chromebook Plus laptops, as well as adding other AI features such as “Help me write,” an AI editing assistant; generative AI wallpaper and video call backgrounds; and Magic editor using AI to enhance photos.
The company did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Tuesday.
A trust issue?
As Google competes with Microsoft and other tech giants to achieve AI dominance, integrating the technology seamlessly into various products, including consumer devices, is one key strategic play. Not to be outdone, Microsoft also has integrated its AI assistant, Copilot, into its Microsoft 365 apps, Word, Outlook, and OneNote, to make it easy to accomplish tasks such as generating first drafts and revising text, as well as making other AI improvements.
But one blind spot tech providers may have when it comes to the seamless integration of AI into products that people already use is that, while it’s certainly helpful, maybe customers aren’t quite ready for it because it’s still unproven, observed one expert.
“It’s natural to want to incorporate the newest technological innovations into your products, and when done well, it can have amazing gains in efficiency and productivity,” noted Gal Ringel, co-founder and CEO of data-privacy firm Mine.
However, “in many cases consumers are not yet asking for AI to be added to products,” he said. That’s because “there is still the major issue of trust when it comes to AI, and trying to push the tech through without first asking why consumers are cautious and addressing those issues is not doing AI well,” he noted.
Google’s secure focus
Still, Google has a good chance of integrating AI more safely into Chromebook than a competitor like, say, Microsoft, does with Windows machines, because it has full control over the technology, observed Bradley Shimmin, chief analyst of AI platforms, analytics, and data management for research firm Omdia.
“Google really owns the laptop as it sits on the user’s desktop, in terms of how software runs on that machine,” he said. “This allows the company to provide a much better security profile than other systems.”
Google also requires that all ChromeOS devices use secure boot, which means that every time the machine boots up, it’s guaranteed to run without any malware that could possibly have been picked up beforehand, he noted. Moreover, the OS uses strong sandboxing for each app/web to prevent any in-app exposure to risk, Shimmin said.
“Taken together, these efforts means that Google can roll out OS- and app-level functionality to all current Chromebooks in short order,” he said. “And given Google’s strong adherence to security practices, I would imagine that this implementation will focus on user privacy and security.”