Google accidentally posted a preview of its upcoming AI tool, Jarvis AI, on the Chrome extension store but quickly deleted it (via The Information).
This comes just a few weeks after the initial news in October about Google working on a “helpful” web companion. Apparently, some people installed the extension before it was taken down, but they couldn’t use it. The software required certain access permissions that users couldn’t work around.
Jarvis is an AI agent that would surf the web for you. It aims to take care of tasks that are easy to automate so you can focus on more complex computing. The Information reports the agent will be readied and released in December 2024. Project Jarvis is the current codename that’s subject to change at a later date.
An advanced version of Gemini AI will power this tool. Jarvis would fulfill tasks such as “including gathering research, purchasing a product, or booking a flight.” It is supposed to help people “automate every day, web-based tasks.”
All the news about Project Jarvis is giving us major déjà vu because of how many times we’ve seen the same capabilities being touted, just by another company for another new or upcoming AI agent. Anthropic’s new AI model, Claude AI, does the exact same job: controls your computer for you. It will be taught to use computers by taking screenshots and sending them back to the model to analyze the screen’s contents.
Apple Intelligence promises to do the same with its “onscreen awareness” feature. It will observe your activity and feed that into its system to intelligently carry out those tasks for you on another occasion.
Microsoft’s Copilot+ Recall is another recent example. This highly nosy feature, which made people extremely uncomfortable, is an AI-powered screenshotting machine. To learn about you and help “assist you better,” it will store those screenshots, including all your passwords. This way, the next time you need help, you can prompt an AI model on your Recall-supported machine, and it will sort through your screenshots to assist you with your query. Due to the controversial concept and a harsh reaction from the community, Microsoft delayed its Recall release though. It said it would be released “later,” initially exclusively for the members of the Windows Insider Program.