Google Elevates Chromebook Experience With Advanced AI Integration

Google showed off new AI tools and features at its developers' conference, Google I/O, earlier in May. Now it's injecting some AI straight into its new Chromebook and Chromebook Plus laptops. The added tools include Google's Gemini Advanced AI chat, its Magic Editor, which is for fixing photos, and a new Game Dashboard for recording gameplay and remapping controls. There's also face and gesture tracking, which allows for hands-free controls. 

While several of these feature updates will be available in standard Chromebooks, all the new options will be available in the higher-end Chromebook Plus models, typically priced between $350 and $700. Google introduced the Chromebook Plus laptop category in October 2023 to guarantee Chromebook buyers would get a set of base-level specs, capabilities and features. New Chromebook Plus laptops will now come with 12 months of Google One AI Premium, which includes Gemini Advanced, Gemini for Google Workspace, 2TB of cloud storage and everything else available in the regular Premium plan. At $20 a month, that's quite the incentive. 

Watch this: Control Your Chromebook With Gestures and New AI Features

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Google held an event in New York to debut new Chromebook and Chromebook Plus models from Acer, HP and Asus. More importantly, it also let me test some of the new features. Here are the ones that showed the most promise, starting with the new Game Dashboard. 

Chromebook gaming gets a feature boost

Gaming on Chromebooks has grown a lot over the past few years, and there are Chromebook gaming laptops like the $650 Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE pictured up top. These laptops have fast Wi-Fi or Ethernet, 120Hz displays for smoother visuals and RGB backlit keyboards. While there is Steam support, and they're great for cloud gaming, many more games are readily available through the Google Play store. 

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE $550 at Best Buy

The new Game Dashboard expands these Chromebooks' value as gaming devices. For example, it has a tool to remap touchscreen controls to keyboard keys. It also makes it easy to capture and share screenshots and gameplay videos. There is also an option to turn on your webcam and record yourself chatting in the corner of the screen. Just open a game and the dashboard appears. 

The Game Dashboard is available for all Chromebooks, not just Plus models. Other new features you'll find across all Chromebooks include Google Task integration to access your to-dos throughout Google Workspace and devices, GIF screen recording using the built-in screen capture tool, and the option to scan a QR code with your Android phone to set up a new Chromebook. 

Empowering accessibility with hand-free control

One of the coolest demos was for a future update to all Chromebooks. This update will add gesture and face tracking to ChromeOS for hand-free control. You can completely navigate the OS and apps -- write an email, browse the web, play games -- all without the keyboard or touchpad. Using head movements, the demonstrator moved the cursor quickly around the screen, double-clicking with a smile and recentered the cursor by opening his mouth. They're not fully baked yet, but they're still surprisingly good. These accessibility features can be enabled now as an experimental feature with a ChromeOS flag. 

Reading, writing and trip-planning

Chromebook Plus models will have most of the new AI features, including a preinstalled Gemini Advanced chatbot app. The app can help you write, brainstorm, create graphics, generate images, summarize documents and write code. And, yes, it can help you plan a vacation or, at least in my testing, give you a solid starting place.

One of the demos was for an upcoming Help Me Read feature, which can summarize a webpage or document. Then, you can ask follow-up questions to drill down and find the info you're after. The demo was a little slow, but overall, it worked OK. However, in CNET's recent tests of Gemini, the chatbot was inaccurate compared to its competition. Maybe it goes without saying, but it's best to double-check the work when it comes to research with Gemini and other chatbots. 

Having access to Gemini straight out of the box is certainly a nice addition, especially for those who haven't dipped their fingertips into AI waters yet. But it's really all the little extras Google has peppered into the new Chromebooks that make this update worthy of attention. At CNET we've only just started testing a few of these new models, so we'll be able to let you know soon which of the additions shine brightest.