As part of the conference, Google announced "Project Astra," a new personal AI Assistant powered by Gemini AI. A live demonstration showcased Astra's ability to interact with the world through a smartphone camera, providing accurate responses to user inquiries in real-time.

Reflecting on Google's journey, Pichai acknowledged that while the company wasn't the pioneer in search, email, or building a browser, AI represents an early-stage opportunity where Google can lead. However, he candidly admitted recent setbacks, such as the controversy surrounding images generated by Google's Gemini, stating, "We got it wrong." 

Google has fired an additional 20 employees amidst an internal protest regarding the company's involvement in an Israeli defence contract. These terminations, labelled as "non-participating bystanders," have intensified an ongoing discord within Google.

Google has made a significant stride in the tech industry by unveiling its inaugural custom ARM processor named "Axion," tailored specifically for data centres.

In a recent development, Google has issued an apology to India following a major controversy sparked by its AI platform, Gemini. The platform came under scrutiny after returning "unsubstantiated" results to a query about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.