Google’s Jarvis may soon book your flights and find shopping deals on its own

Google is reportedly developing an AI with the potential to upgrade how we interact with the web. Codenamed “Jarvis,” this autonomous technology is designed to “take over your web browser” and complete tasks such as conducting research, making purchases, and booking flights, as reported by The Information on Saturday.

The name “Jarvis” might ring a bell for Marvel fans, bringing to mind Iron Man’s super-intelligent AI assistant, J.A.R.V.I.S. While Google’s Jarvis may not be able to help you with time travel just yet, it could still be a valuable tool for anyone who wants to save time and effort on common web-based tasks. Imagine being able to ask Jarvis to research a topic, find the best deals on a product, or book the cheapest flights for your upcoming travels.

Sources cited in the report suggest that Jarvis “responds to a person’s commands by capturing frequent screenshots of what’s on their computer screen, and interpreting the shots before taking actions like clicking on a button or typing into a text field.” At its core, Jarvis appears tailored to work closely with Chrome. However, it is still unknown whether this functionality will be exclusive to the desktop browser or extend to the mobile app.

According to the report, Jarvis “operates relatively slowly because the model needs to think for a few seconds before taking each action.” This could suggest that the technology relies on cloud processing rather than operating directly on your device. It might also hint at the complexity of the tasks Jarvis is designed to handle, requiring a more deliberate approach than simply retrieving information.

However, it’s worth noting that Google’s present forays into AI-powered search haven’t always lived up to the hype. The company’s AI-generated Search Overviews and search results haven’t been as transformative as Google initially suggested. This raises the question of whether Jarvis will be able to truly deliver on its promise of providing genuinely helpful research results or if it will simply become another avenue for Google to push sponsored content.

If the rumors are true, we might get our first glimpse of Jarvis as early as December, coinciding with the expected debut of Gemini 2.0. However, access might initially be restricted to subscribers of Gemini Advanced, Google’s premium AI service, before eventually being rolled out to the broader public.