Compared to previous years, I/O 2024 was more like a two-day developer conference. In fact today was the third day of I/O, with Google announcing the internal Gemini Hackathon hosting a new employee-only “Demo Slam” event.
There was no I/O conference in 2020, as 2021 was broadcast on Mountain View to a very limited live audience. One-day participants in 2022 and 2023 are invited. After the 2024 keynote, Google hosted in-person live sessions and after-hours social events.
I/O 2024 appeared to be a three-day event as pre-recorded live sessions were posted to YouTube Thursday morning, but was actually just another day of programming for Google employees at the Shoreline Amphitheater.
In an internal email we saw this afternoon, CEO Sundar Pichai, who hosted the event, said thousands of Google employees were in attendance, while others were able to stream the event internally. Share the pictures too LinkedIn:
Dave Burke, vice president of Android engineering, and others at Google DeepMind, Search and Labs reviewed what was announced earlier this week. The Astra project was demoed again and some of the announcements were then made available to employees to apply to the demo app.
Meanwhile, at the I/O Demo Slam, Pichai announced an internal hackathon to encourage Google employees to test Gemini.
Googlers can work in teams, and the project aims to encourage AI experiments that can ultimately lead to new products. Google executives select finalists to present demos at company-wide meetings. This hackathon also offers cash prizes for the winning teams.
Pichai said Google “wants to create more opportunities for us to come together as a company with a spirit of innovation and problem-solving, focusing on the biggest opportunities like artificial intelligence.”
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