Google hosted its annual Chromebook event, which usually falls around the same time as one of the biggest tech events of the year: Computex. This year was no exception, with the tech giant unveiling its plans for AI integration into its range of Chromebook Plus laptops just as Microsoft and other popular manufacturers announced a flood of their AI-powered laptops, most of which arrived during Computex 2024.
While this is certainly an interesting time, as we’re about to see how far AI-powered components and tools will take us, it also feels like we’ll be getting more of the same unless you include Chromebooks into the mix. Then you really have something worth talking about.
What’s wrong with AI PCs?
While the prospect of new technologies is always exciting, they can also have some disadvantages. The AI hardware itself, especially if it eliminates the large data centers needed to power both generative AI and the cloud storage it often depends on. enormous amounts of water and other resources, and the environmental impact will only increase as technology giants like Nvidia, Intel, AppleAMD, Qualcomm and more are creating more powerful AI-based CPUs and especially GPUs.
Then there’s Microsoft, whose push for AI tools in Windows 11 could result in one of the following greatest ecological disasters, as millions of users are forced to abandon millions of Windows 10 laptops that are incompatible with the new operating system and its features. This is supported by a UN report stating that e-waste is being created faster than we can recycle it, and even Microsoft itself admits it that the push for AI PCs and tools is causing an increase in CO2 emissions.
The final problem concerns both price and accessibility, with which almost every manufacturer and technology company is complicit. AI PCs always cost more than $1,000; effectively pricing out a significant portion of buyers looking for an affordable laptop. As for accessibility features, they are sparse and redundant (looking at Microsoft’s AI-generated automatic captions) or non-existent.
What do Google and its Chromebooks do well with AI?
The irony of my claim that Google is doing everything right in AI is that it is currently suffering from a significant self-inflicted wound to its search engine: AI overviews. On the other hand, the Chromebook side of the tech giant has made strides in making AI more accessible to the masses.
I watched several demonstrations of Google’s new AI tools, including Help Me Read & Write, Help Me Game, Help Me Hands-Free, and Help Me Create. Seeing such a wide range of software and features covering so many facets of the average user experience did wonders to support Google’s oft-repeated mantra that AI should be useful, integrated into the entire user interface and based in the cloud and on the device.
Help Me Hands-Free and tools like live transcription and live translation are particularly impressive because they greatly increase the options accessible to users. Although Help Me Hands-Free is currently in beta testing, you can control your entire user interface with hand gestures and voice commands. Live transcription and live translation are also great tools that make videos more accessible.
Then there’s the pricing, with Chromebooks beating every other laptop. The most expensive options still cost less than $1,000, with specs and displays that are perfect for productivity work and even some gaming. Chrome OS isn’t perfect, but the apps available are expanding and, combined with the increasing number of AI tools, are making it more popular.
While there is still room to grow in this regard, it is encouraging that Google is trying to limit the immense costs of AI by enabling both local and cloud storage.
AI needs access to cloud storage to keep the data pool fresh (although that carries its own moral implications of what constitutes intellectual property theft). But if you can limit access to the cloud – and thus access to data centers and the resources they consume – you can mitigate some of AI’s negative environmental impacts. I’m not sure I see the same level of eco-friendly AI commitment from other tech giants.
Google’s Chrome hardware is also relatively free from concerns about large-scale, unsupportable OS upgrades that could lead to more waste.
What I would like to see in the future
My biggest concern for AI remains its ecological impact. And that’s why I want Google to take a much more proactive and aggressive approach to limiting the vast amount of resources it uses. If any company can figure out how to make AI completely local to reduce that burden, it’s Google with the capital and staff to make it happen. Like other tech companies, it has a responsibility to do this.
Another improvement is to make Chromebooks even more affordable. There are plenty of models that maintain their cheap price, but the most expensive models continue to rise in price. One of the biggest advantages of the Chromebook is its retail price compared to other laptops, but it seems like that difference is closing every year. Since Chrome OS is still quite limited, it is unacceptable that it approaches the cost of a Windows laptop.
That said, Google has made the most progress in making its AI technology fairer as it has thoroughly integrated numerous tools and features into the user interface. Tools that serve the user instead of checking a random box on a list that is only meant to impress but doesn’t really help. Other tech giants should follow suit if they don’t want their more premium options to be left behind as Chromebook continues to loom over them.