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Google IO 2025 keynote recap: how the Gemini AI fest unfolded

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Sundar Pichai stands in front of a Google logo at Google I/O 2021.
Google I/O 2025
This story is part of our complete Google I/O coverage
Updated less than 2 hours ago

The Google IO 2025 keynote has concluded. We spent almost two hours watching the announcements made at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California and if you’re looking for anything other than AI you’ll be hard pressed to find something.

Yes, Google spent pretty much the entire keynote speaking about Gemini AI and a host of new AI features it’s bringing to its various platforms and tools. What’s good is a lot of the new announcements are rolling out today, giving us the chance to try them out – such as AI Mode in Google Search for those in the US.

There was the briefest of mentions for Android 16, but interestingly more airtime for Android XR. That’s pretty cool as it feels like we’re getting closer to the launch of a set of Android XR powered smart glasses.

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Google IO 2025 keynote as it happened

LiveLast updated May 20, 2025 11:57 AM
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    John McCann
    John McCann
    Managing Editor
    John is Managing Editor at Digital Trends. He's been a consumer technology & automotive journalist for over a decade.

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    I saw Google’s Gemini AI erase copyright evidence. I am deeply worried
    Gemini Advanced on the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

    Update: Google has responded to Digital Trends’ queries. The story has been updated with company’s statement below.
    The rise of generative AI has been a fairly messy process, especially from fair usage ethics and copyright perspective. AI giants are inking deals with publishers to avoid legal hassles, while at the same time, they are embroiled in copyright tussles in courts in multiple countries.
    As the ravenous appetite for training AI on user data grows, we might be in for another ethical conundrum. Multiple users on X and Reddit have shared demonstrations of how Google’s latest Gemini 2.0 series AI model can remove watermarks from copyright-protected images.
    Going by the before/after samples of images, it seems Gemini is doing a fairly good job of removing the watermarks. Notably, it’s not only erasing those banner-style watermarks, but also fairly complex overlays with design and stylized text elements.
    https://x.com/ajiteshleo/status/1901484196972945872?s=61
    The model in question is the Gemini 2.0 Flash, which was released earlier this year and got a reasoning upgrade, as well. It is worth noting here that you can not remove the watermark if you are using the mobile or desktop version of the Gemini 2.0 Flash model. Trying to do so returns a message like this:
    “Removing watermarks from images without the explicit permission of the copyright holder is illegal in most countries. It is important to respect the copyright laws and intellectual property rights. If you want to use an image with a watermark, you should contact the copyright holder and ask for permission.”
    You can, however, try and remove the watermark from images in the Google AI Studio. Digital Trends successfully removed watermarks from a variety of images using the Gemini 2.0 Flash (Image Generation) Experimental model.
     
    It is a violation of local copyright laws and any usage of AI-modified material without due consent could land you in legal trouble. Moreover, it is a deeply unethical act, which is also why artists and authors are fighting in court over companies using their work to train AI models without duly compensating them or seeking their explicit nod.

    How are the results?
    A notable aspect is that the images produced by the AI are fairly high quality. Not only is it removing the watermark artifacts, but also fills the gap with intelligent pixel-level reconstruction. In its current iteration, it works somewhat like the Magic Eraser feature available in the Google Photos app for smartphones.
    Furthermore, if the input image is low quality, Gemini is not only wiping off the watermark details but also upscaling the overall picture. .
    https://x.com/kaiju_ya/status/1901099096930496720?s=61
    The output image, however, has its own Gemini watermark, although this itself can be removed with a simple crop. There are a few minor differences in the final image produced by Gemini after its watermark removal process, such as slightly different color temperatures and fuzzy surface details in photorealistic shots.

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    The writing has been on the wall for a while, but the shift away from Google Assistant is now official. Google has announced that it will shift users to Gemini as the default AI assistant on their devices in the coming months. Once that happens, they will no longer be able to access the Google Assistant.
    At the moment, you can switch to Google Assistant as the default option on your Android phone, even on newer phones that come with Gemini running out of the box. In addition to phones, Google will be giving a similar treatment to smartwatches, Android Auto, tablets, smart home devices, TVs, and audio gear.
    “We're also bringing a new experience, powered by Gemini, to home devices like speakers, displays, and TVs,” says Google, without sharing a specific time frame for the transition. What happens to Google Assistant following the transition? Well, it will be removed from devices and will no longer be available to download from app stores.

    Talking about apps, Gemini can already interact with a wide range of Google’s own as well as a few third-party apps. Users can ask it to perform chores across different products, without ever having to open those apps. In addition to in-house apps such as Docs, Drive, and Gmail, the Gemini assistant can also perform tasks in third-party apps such as WhatsApp and Spotify, alongside a bunch of Samsung apps.

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    Google’s Gemini AI has steadily made its way to the best of its software suite, from native Android integrations to interoperability with Workspace apps such as Gmail and Docs. However, some of the most advanced Gemini features have remained locked behind a subscription paywall.
    That changes today. Google has announced that Gemini Deep Research will now be available for all users to try, alongside the ability to create custom Gem bots. You no longer need a Gemini Advanced (or Google One AI Premium) subscription to use the aforementioned tools.

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    Deep Research is an agentic tool that takes over the task of web research, saving users the hassle of visiting one web page after another, looking for relevant information. With Deep Research, you can simply put a natural language query as input, and also specify the source, if needed.

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