A Suggested Demo for Google I/O 2025 (May 20–21)

Jay Peters, last month for The Verge:

Google’s next I/O developer conference will take place on May 20th and May 21st, the company announced today. The event will be “open to everyone online” and will include “livestreamed keynotes and sessions,” according to an FAQ. Like past years, there will also be an in-person component at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California.

That’s still two months off but I got interested in the dates for I/O this week. After we recorded Friday’s Dithering (on which we talked about my “Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino” piece and, more so, the reaction to it, the resonance it seemed to strike), Ben Thompson and I were spitballing, and it popped into my head that Apple’s “more personalized Siri” delay is a marketing gift to Google.

What I would do if I worked at Google is prepare a live demo of Google Gemini on a Pixel phone doing exactly what Apple showed in last year’s announcement at WWDC, and then again in the Bella Ramsey TV commercial that Apple pulled from YouTube. Something like this:

Presenter: This is a live demo, on my Pixel 9. I need to pick my mom up at the airport and she sent me an email with her flight information. [Invokes Gemini on phone in hand...] Gemini, when is my mom’s flight landing?

Gemini: Your mom’s flight is on time, and arriving at SFO at 11:30.

Presenter: I don’t always remember to add things to my calendar, and so I love that Gemini can help me keep track of plans that I’ve made in casual conversation, like this lunch reservation my mom mentioned in a text. [Invokes Gemini...] What’s our lunch plan?

Gemini: You’re having lunch at Waterbar at 12:30.

Presenter: How long will it take us to get there from the airport?

Gemini presents a Google Maps driving directions popup window showing it will take 21 minutes.

Then do another live demo with the “What’s the name of the guy I had a meeting with a couple of months ago at Cafe Grenel?” example from Apple’s now-pulled Apple Intelligence commercial. The exact same demos, but real: live and on stage. These would be great demos even if Apple had never promised to deliver them. But given that Apple did promise them for this year, and has now delayed them until “the coming year”, they’re devastating if Google can show them actually working on Apple’s own original timeline.

Stick to what Gemini can actually do, on actual Pixel phones running the new beta software — which by some accounts already includes the delayed personalized features of Siri. The point should be showing Google AI technology, accessing personal data from Google cloud services, using Google devices, delivering on the promises made by Apple a year prior. But there’s no need for Google’s presenters to mention Apple or Siri, or even mention unnamed “competitors”. Everyone watching the I/O keynote will recognize those demo prompts and draw the competitive conclusions for themselves. Nothing comes across as confident like not even acknowledging, let alone naming, your competition. And nothing serves as proof like a live working demo.

★ Saturday, 15 March 2025