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How Google is branding AI: Sparkles, Duet, and ‘generative’

Abner Li | May 16 2023 - 1:00 pm PT

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Sparkle

Google refers to four-pointed stars as “sparkles.” The shape is used for multiple AI features:

Bard uses a big sparkle with a smaller one in the bottom-right corner.
Magic Compose in Google Messages and “Help me write” in Gmail and Docs use a pen icon with a sparkle in the top-left.

Cinematic Wallpapers in Android/Pixel use a big sparkle with smaller ones on the right.
The sparkle in Duet AI (more on that below) is white and placed in a circle with a blue gradient.
The Search Generative Experience (SGE) has the most elaborate sparkle, with four semi-circles forming the external shape.

Duet AI for Workspace

I think Google’s clearest vision for applying AI is in Workspace. The company wants you to “collaborate in real time with AI.” It’s easy to see how “Help me write” can help you in Gmail and Docs, while image generation uses in Slides and Meet (for custom backgrounds) are also quite obvious.

“AI can act as a coach, a thought partner, a source of inspiration, as well as a productivity booster across all of the apps of Workspace.”

Meanwhile, spreadsheets are daunting for most people, and having an assistant to walk you through creating them could really broaden usage. That constant assistance makes “Duet” a fitting name.

In the short term, Google tells us that generative AI in Sheets and Slides – as well as “six more generative AI features across Workspace” – will be entering the Trusted Tester program “starting next month.” It comes as “Help me write” in Gmail and Docs is seeing wider Labs availability on the web.

“And later this year, all of this will be generally available to business and consumer Workspace users via a new service called Duet AI for Workspace.”

The Duet motif will be even more apparent when Google Workspace apps add “Sidekick.” It’s launched by tapping a new icon that feels very purposefully placed to the left of your profile avatar (on the web). Launching this side panel triggers Sidekick to “instantly read and process the document” or email to provide a summary of what’s being worked on, offer suggested prompts, and reveal an “Ask anything…” field.

Generative AI in Google Search

Generative AI in Google’s most important product is called the “Search Generative Experience” (SGE). The section below the search bar is referred to as the AI-powered snapshot. We see the sparkle icon followed by a disclaimer:

Generative Al is experimental
Generative Al may be inaccurate or offensive

SGE results are displayed against changing backgrounds that look to adapt to whatever images are displayed. (Content-based dynamic color in Material 3/You parlance.) Google says that color “plays a big role in helping people clearly understand SGE is a new way to interact with search.”

“For instance, the color container of the AI-powered snapshot will dynamically change, and this usage of color will evolve over the next few months to better reflect specific journey types and the query intent itself.”

This color background extends to the expanded snapshot view where you “see how the information is corroborated” and the conversational experience.