Natural language FTW

Google has kicked off its I/O developer conference by announcing a new virtual assistant, simply called Google Assistant. Sundar Pichai, Google CEO demoed the new virtual assistant during the keynote of I/O today, and boy, is it impressive.

Google Assistant builds on the voice recognition technology already on Android smartphones today, but now the Assistant can understand the natural flow of language, and gives you logical follow-up questions, results and actions to your queries.

This is a big deal, since previously Google queries only gave you answers to your questions. With Google Assistant, you’ll be able to book tickets, order food, grab an Uber, navigate to a certain location or get additional information on places you’re currently in. The voice recognition software is pretty good, able to dichiper Sundar’s thick Indian accent without any issues.