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Google’s Project Astra, an experimental ‘universal AI assistant’ initially showcased at Google I/O 2024, is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with artificial intelligence. The project is now demonstrating the capability to autonomously complete tasks, moving beyond simple question answering and object recognition.

Google DeepMind’s Greg Wayne characterizes Astra as a ‘concept car’ for AI assistants, suggesting that its most successful features will eventually find their way into other Google products like Gemini. This new iteration highlights Google’s ambition to develop an AI that not only understands user needs but anticipates them, proactively taking action without explicit instruction.