Google Photos is getting a new Gemini-powered AI assistant

Google announced a new AI-powered assistant for the Photos app at its annual developer conference. Called Ask Photos, it can pull photos/videos from your gallery along with a personalized caption, tell you what's happening in them, or create trip highlights after a vacation.

For instance, you can give commands like "Show me the best photo from each national park I’ve visited,” or if you want to find a photo of your number plate you clicked months ago. Ask Photos can analyze details such as decorations in the background or on the birthday cake when you ask: “What themes have we had for my birthday parties?”

Google said over six billion photos are uploaded to Google Photos every day. Its tool that uses Gemini's multimodal capabilities can save valuable time that may otherwise be consumed by scrolling through old photos.

Google Photos can already search across photos/videos for pets, people, places, and more. It also presents old pictures and videos in a scrapbook-like timeline through a feature called Memories. The AI assistant builds on top of these features and "can understand the context and subject of photos to pull out details."

Commenting on the tool's privacy, Google said:

Your personal data in Google Photos is never used for ads. And people will not review your conversations and personal data in Ask Photos, except in rare cases to address abuse or harm. We also don't train any generative AI product outside of Google Photos on this personal data, including other Gemini models and products.

Ask Photos is an experimental feature that will roll out to Google Photos users this summer. Google notes that the tool is a work in progress and "will not get everything right." That's why the company will implement safeguards to help ensure its responses are safe and appropriate.