In addition to the new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, Google also released more details about new capabilities that its Tensor chip enables. One of them is a much more intelligent way of handling those calls to businesses that sometimes have you waiting hours on end just to speak to a representative. Now, the Pixel will show you the current and projected wait times before you even place a call so you can call when it works for you. Additionally, when you do call and encounter an endless list of options (like, "Press 1 for branch location and hours" if you're calling a bank), you don't need to remember all of them carefully. Instead, Google will listen to them for you and show the automated menu options on the screen for you to tap.

Poorly timed traffic lights don't just waste precious minutes. Like Google's chief sustainability officer Kate Brandt pointed out at a media event yesterday, they're also bad for the environment and public health. The company unveiled a slew of sustainability-centric products and updates today that aim to help users make more informed, environmentally friendly decisions. But it's also been working on a project that could use AI to make traffic lights more efficient and, as a result, decrease pollution in general. When your vehicle stops at an intersection, that idling time leads to wasted fuel and "more street-level air pollution," Brandt said.

Today's topics include Google improving its cloud platform security and introducing new IoT options, and Apple issuing a software update to fix a throttling glitch in its new MacBook Pros. At its Google Cloud Next conference on July 25, Google declared security as the top concern of enterprise customers. To that end, Garrick Toubassi, Google's vice president of engineering for G Suite, said his company is using machine learning and artificial intelligence to block so-called "bad messages" and display a warning for suspicious messages. Google is also adding a confidential mode that lets users add restrictions to email. Also at the conference, Google announced an enterprise version of Google Voice to be integrated with G Suite, which lets administrators manage users, provision and port phone numbers, access detailed reports and set up call routing functionality.

Google is betting that algorithms that understand images and text will draw business to its cloud services, make augmented reality popular, and prompt us to search using our smartphone cameras. From a report: The search company's machine learning systems work best on material from a few rich parts of the world, like the US. They stumble more frequently on data from less affluent countries -- particularly emerging economies like India that Google is counting on to maintain its growth. "We have a very sparse training data set from parts of the world that are not the United States and Western Europe," says Anurag Batra, a researcher at Google. When Batra travels to his native Delhi, he says Google's AI systems become less smart.

Smart algorithms have taken Google a long way. They helped the company dominate search and create the first software to conquer the complex board game Go. Now the company is betting that algorithms that understand images and text will draw business to its cloud services, make augmented reality popular, and prompt us to search using our smartphone cameras. But some of the algorithms Google is staking its future on aren't equally smart everywhere. The search company's machine learning systems work best on material from a few rich parts of the world, like the US.

One of the greatest features of having a voice-powered speaker in our homes is the ability to play a song when the moment strikes. Google Home has always included support for Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora, and TuneIn, letting you fill your house with music just by asking, but now it's making its own service a whole lot smarter. Subscribers to Google Play Music can now tap into a new personalized world of music with Google Home. Where you previously had to meticulously create your own playlists for workouts or dinner parties, Google will now let Assistant be your DJ, as the service combines "machine learning and information like weather, activity, and location" to deliver the perfect playlist for whatever you happen to be doing: "Say you're making pizza and your hands are covered in flour. Just say, 'Ok Google, play music for cooking' and we'll serve up the perfect tunes, like our R&B Kitchen Dance Party playlist. If you've had a long day at work and are too tired to move a muscle, say'Ok Google, play music for relaxing' and get a playlist like Mellow Pop without lifting a finger."