Blogroll

At Google's annual I/O Developer's Conference, the company went all-in on AI, including addressing how it plans to apply the power of artificial intelligence to improve education and learning. "What if everyone everywhere could have their own personal AI tutor on any topic," Google SVP James Manyika asked the conference's keynote audience. "Or what if every educator could have their own assistant in the classroom?"

The answer is LearnLM, a family of language models grounded in educational research and made with educators in mind. Here are three ways the model might deliver more "personalized learning experiences" for students and teachers alike.

A new 'Learning Coach' assistant

Earlier in the morning, Google announced that users would be able to create their own customized AI assistant called a "gem." With their introduction of LearnLM, the company added that pre-made gems especially made for learning would be rolled out in the future. One of these, a "Learning Coach" gem, will provide step-by-step study guidance," and "practice techniques designed to build understanding, rather than just give you the answer." One example provided during the presentation was a Learning Coach gem generating an mnemonic to help a hypothetical student better remember the formula for photosynthesis.

Asked. Credit: Google Answered (sort of) by LearnLM. Credit: Google Interactive learning on YouTube

On YouTube, a LearnLM assistant will respond to viewer questions under educational videos or generate a quiz for the viewer based on the video's information. This feature is already available to select Android users as Google partners with Columbia Teachers College, Arizona State University, and Khan Academy to test and improve its performance. No word on when this YouTube-specific learning assistant will be available to the more than 2 billion people around the world who use the platform every month.

AI tools for educators

Google also noted it's working directly with educators to apply LearnLM's efficiencies to Google Classroom, where teachers will eventually be able to simplify and improve lesson planning, or tailor lessons to the individual needs of their students. Google is also collaborating with MIT's Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education Initiative (RAISE) to develop an online course for educators that will help them better understand and leverage generative AI in the classroom.

Featured Video For You Here’s everything that was announced at Google I/O.

As Google positions its upgraded generative AI as teacher, assistant, and recommendation guru, the company is also trying to turn its models into a bad actor's worst enemy.

"It's clear that AI is already helping people," said James Manyika, Google's senior vice president of research, technology, and society, to the crowd at the company's Google I/O 2024 conference. "Yet, as with any emerging technology, there are still risks, and new questions will arise as AI advances and its uses evolve."

Manyika then announced the company's latest evolution of red teaming, an industry standard testing process to find vulnerabilities in generative AI. Google's new "AI-assisted red teaming" trains multiple AI agents to compete with each other to find potential threats. These trained models can then more accurately pinpoint what Google calls "adversarial prompting" and limit problematic outputs.

SEE ALSO: Gemini Nano can detect scam calls for you SEE ALSO: Google I/O: New Gemini App wants to be the AI assistant to top all AI assistants

The process is the company's new plan for building a more responsible, humanlike AI, but its also being sold as a way to address growing concerns about cyber security and misinformation.

The new safety measures incorporate feedback from a team of experts across tech, academia, and civil society, Google explained, as well as its seven principles of AI development: Being socially beneficial, avoiding bias, building and testing for safety, human accountability, privacy design, upholding scientific excellence, and public accessibility. Through these new testing efforts, and industry-wide commitments, Google's attempting to putting product where its words are.

Featured Video For You Here’s everything that was announced at Google I/O.

Google held its I/O event aimed at developers on Tuesday. The event was expected to provide lots of news and announcements, and it did not disappoint.

Nothing is ever certain, but coming into Tuesday's event, it was expected that Google would announce significant updates to its chatbot Gemini. In actuality, we got a mess of AI announcements, most centered on Gemini and its new capabilities.

Here is everything announced during I/O, as well as some of Mashable's corresponding coverage so that you can dive deeper.

DJ mode for Google's Music FX

OK, so this was actually announced in March, but it got a sick demonstration on Tuesday, courtesy of DJ Marc Rebillet, a.k.a. Loop Daddy.

Tweet may have been deleted AI Overviews

Google's first major announcement of I/O was that it would add AI overviews to search. The hope is that AI can take numerous sources of information and make a small, digestible overview for users. Mashable's testing, however, has found the tool unreliable so far.

SEE ALSO: Here's what Google's AI-powered search looks like Ask Photos

Google announced at I/O that Google Photos would get a powerful new AI tool called Ask Photos. Google said the feature can effectively parse through your pictures and answer questions you might have, like " What is my license plate number?" or "When did my kid learn to swim?"

Basically, it seems like it could prove to be an advanced search feature.

Credit: Screenshot: Google 'AI Agents' a.k.a. AI personal assistants

Google debuted AI agents at its I/O event on Tuesday. CEO Sundar Pichai said the AI Agents are in the "early days" but that the idea is that the feature will be able to complete complex tasks for you via AI. An example given by Pichai was returning a pair of shoes—the AI Agent could go through your emails, fill out a return form, and set up a pick-up appointment to return the shoes.

It's unclear when the Agents will be available to the public.

Project Astra

Google announced a new AI Agent — or, at least, it played an apparent demo of it — that is a multimodal tool, meaning you can point it at IRL things and get answers. Google dubbed the tool Project Astra.

Examples in the demo included recognizing the details in code, determining a person's neighborhood, and determining where a misplaced item was last seen. No firm date was announced, however, for users to access such features.

Tweet may have been deleted Gemini 1.5 Pro and Gemini 1.5 Flash

Google announced Gemini 1.5 Pro and Flash at the I/O event. Both are new versions of Google's AI model. Pro will help support many of the new features demonstrated at I/O. Gemini 1.5 Flash is, well, basically Pro, but faster.

"Flash is a lighter-weight model compared to Pro," said Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind. "It's designed to be fast and cost-efficient to serve at scale while still featuring multi-model reasoning capabilities and breakthrough long context."

SEE ALSO: Google's AI model just got faster with Gemini 1.5 Flash New search functions

Google's I/O event brought some news for a function that is basically synonymous with the company's name. Google said it would soon have features like video searching, planning via search (like making travel itineraries), and contextual search.

Mashable's Chance Townsend has more details.

AI Teammate

Have you ever wanted an AI co-worker? No? Well, it's too bad; you might be getting one. Google announced a new feature called AI Teammate at I/O, and basically, it's an AI chatbot that'll function as a mock co-worker. It can serve as a hub for all the details co-workers have shared while getting their jobs done. So now, whether you want it or not, you might have a chatbot helping you finish your work.

Tweet may have been deleted Gemini Nano can detect scam calls

Scam calls stink. At Google I/O, the company announced Nano, its smallest AI model that can run entirely on a device. A key feature? It can intercept a spam call, which means AI would be listening to your phone calls.

Mashable's Stan Schroeder has more details.

A new Gemini App

Google announced a new Gemini app at I/O, which is an AI assistant. The app will integrate text, video, and voice prompts. It'll also feature "Gems," which are customizable personal assistants for specific activities like cooking or exercise.

Veo, Google's answer to Sora

Google debuted Veo, a video generator similar to OpenAI's Sora. Hassabis, the Google Deepmind CEO, promised that "Veo creates high-quality 1080p videos from text images and video prompts." That, well, sounds a lot like Sora.

SEE ALSO: Veo, Google's Sora competitor, is hyped by Donald Glover

This story is a developing story and will be updated...

Google, with the help of creative renaissance man Donald Glover, has demoed an AI video generator to compete with OpenAI's Sora. The model is called Veo, and while no clear launch date or rollout plan has been announced, the demo does appear to show a Sora-like product, apparently capable of generating high-quality, convincing video.

SEE ALSO: Google I/O 2024: What to expect after OpenAI's GPT-4o reveal

What's "cool" about VEO? "You can make a mistake faster," Glover said in a video shown during Google's I/O 2024 livestream. "That's all you really want at the end of the day — at least in art — is just to make mistakes fast." 

Credit: Mashable screenshot from a Google promo

Speaking onstage in Hawaii at Google I/O, Google Deepmind CEO Demis Hassabis said, "Veo creates high quality 1080p videos from text image and video prompts." This makes Veo the same type of tool, with the same resolution as Sora on its highest setting. A slider shown in the demo shows a Veo video length being stretched out to a little over one minute, also the approximate length of a Sora video. 

Since Veo and Sora are both unreleased products, there's very little use trying to compare them in detail at this point. However, according to Hassabis, the interface will allow Veo users to "further edit your videos using additional prompts." This would be a function that Sora doesn't currently have according to creators who have been given access.

Tweet may have been deleted

What was Veo trained on? That's not currently clear. About a month ago, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan told Bloomberg that if OpenAI used YouTube videos to train Sora, that would be a "clear violation" of the YouTube terms of service. However, YouTube's parent company Alphabet also owns Google, which made Veo. Mohan strongly implied in that Bloomberg interview that YouTube does feed content to Google's AI models, but only, he claims, when users sign off on it.  

What we do know about the creation of Veo is that, according to Hassabis, this model is the culmination of Google and Deepmind's many similar projects, including Deepmind's Generative Query Network (GQN) research published back in 2018, last year's VideoPoet, Google's rudimentary video generator Phenaki, and Google's Lumiere, which was demoed earlier this year. 

Glover's specific AI-enabled filmmaking project hasn't been announced. According to the video at I/O, Glover says he's "been interested in AI for a couple of years now," and that he reached out to Google — and apparently not the other way around. "We got in contact with some of the people at Google and they had been working on something of their own, so we're all meeting," Glover says in Google's Veo demo video.  

There's currently no way for the general public to try Veo, but there is a waitlist signup page.

Google's self-proclaimed "most intelligent AI experience" yet is redefining how humans interact with AI via a new app. The latest Gemini offering was announced at Google I/O on Tuesday.

"Our vision for the Gemini app is to be the most helpful, personal AI assistant by giving you direct access to Google's latest AI models," said Sissie Hsao, general manager for Gemini experiences and Google Assistant. The multimodal app —which integrates text, video, and newly-announced voice technology for more "natural" prompting — uses brand new Gemini technology and builds off of the new Gemini 1.5 Pro and Gemini 1.5 Flash, also announced today.

The app's adaptable voice feature, coined Gemini Live, debuts this summer, allowing users to have real time conversations with Google's AI helper. It will also incorporate the company's Project Astra video capabilities, touted as the next big visual assistant that can process video-based queries in real time.

In addition, Google will roll out new advanced features on the app through its Dynamic UI, like a trip planning assistant that incorporates Google's search, maps, calendars, and other features for personalized travel advice. Gemini Advanced users will have access to new massive storage and processing capabilities (think 30,000 lines of code, a 1,500 page thesis, or an hour long video), too.

SEE ALSO: Google's AI model just got faster with Gemini 1.5 Flash

But the company's biggest reality pitch for the app is its timesaving "Gems," or customizable prompts that users can save and pilot over and over again for very specific uses. Examples include a "Yoga Bestie" Gem, a "Calculus Tutor" Gem, and a "Sous Chef" Gem.

Credit: Google

The revolutionized mobile experience was previewed shortly after the company announced new workspace integrations with the company's AI teammates — another bid for Google's complete AI takeover. "As gemini and its capabilities continue to evolve," said general manager of Google Workspace Aparna Pappu,"We are diligently bringing that power into workspace to make all our users more productive and creative, both at home and at work."

Featured Video For You Here’s everything that was announced at Google I/O.

Now the unfunniest guy you know can be even less funny in the group chat.

At Google I/O on Tuesday, Google showed off what felt like dozens of new things you can do with its in-house Gemini AI, but one of them stood out more than the others. In Google Messages on Android devices, users will be able to bring up the Gemini overlay and create AI-generated meme response images to drag and drop into conversations.

SEE ALSO: Ask Photos is Google's new AI feature for Google Photos

Google said this will roll out "over the next few months" in a blog post.

Cool. Credit: Google

There isn't much to say about this, really. If you want to post a reaction image, but you're somehow not creative enough to just use one of the thousands of existing (and already funny) reaction images online, this is now a thing you can do.

Will your friends in the group chat enjoy it? Probably not, but that's not my problem.

Featured Video For You Here’s everything that was announced at Google I/O. SEE ALSO: Google Search at Google I/O: You can now ask questions with video and 3 other features

Google I/O is underway, and the company is firing on all cylinders, introducing feature after feature that leverages AI to make your life easier.

Some of the features that caught our eye have to do with Gemini Nano, the company's smallest Gemini-based model. It's still pretty capable, but it's small enough to run entirely on device, meaning it can perform tasks faster than other versions of Gemini.

As Google demoed on I/O stage on Tuesday, Gemini Nano can help a person with poor eyesight get more textual context when they receive an image. Another pretty cool feature, also demoed on stage, is Gemini Nano intercepting a scam call.

In the demonstration, an unknown number calls the recipient's phone, and says, with suspiciously little info and context, that the victim's bank funds are being threatened, and that they should be moved to a safe location. At that moment, Gemini Nano interrupts, rightfully determining that the call is likely a scam, as banks will never ask you to move your money elsewhere to keep it safe.

As comforting as it is to know that there's someone helping you weed out scam calls, it is a bit disconcerting that an AI is listening to the content of your calls, but that's the new AI-powered world we're living in. Fortunately, since this is Nano we're talking, the audio is processed on the phone itself, so your data should remain on your device.

SEE ALSO: 'AI Teammate' announced at Google I/O 2024 — your new AI-powered co-worker friend

Gemini Nano has been available on Google's Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, but Google is also building it into Chrome, starting with version 126. There, it will power AI features including generating text when needed.

The scam call detection feature, in particular, is undergoing testing right now, and Google will have more to share "later this summer."

If you've ever used an AI chatbot, you'd know it's a very singular experience. Your chatbot interacts with what an individual says or asks.

At Google I/O, as part of its Gemini for Workspace platform, the search giant shared a new feature: AI Teammate. AI Teammate basically takes that solo chatbot experience and puts the AI bot in a multi-user space, turning the AI chatbot into sort of a mock fellow co-worker.

SEE ALSO: Google I/O 2024: 'AI Agents' are AI personal assistants that can return your shoes Setting up an AI Teammate in Gemini for Workspace Credit: Google

According to Google, an AI Teammate can appear alongside others within the company in chat groups, emails, and documents just as any other employee would. The AI Teammate can have an identity – at Google I/O, they showcased an AI Teammate named "Chip" – as well as its own workspace account. The AI Teammate can have a specific role in the company and carry out specific objectives.

For example, if a user asks a question in a group chat, the AI Teammate can answer the question based on what's been addressed anytime earlier in the chat group. If the AI Teammate was added to emails or files, the chatbot can also utilize that information in its answers as well. Everyone in the group chat can see the chatbot's answers, just like they could any other co-worker, and further interact with the chatbot as well.

Google's AI Teammate "Chip" provides info in a group chat. Credit: Google

Basically, the main selling point here is that the AI Teammate can build a knowledge base based on what the entire team has shared and not just one singular user. That AI Teammate can then distribute that information to everyone as well.

It's an interesting take on the AI chatbot experience. There has been some third-party AI wrappers that have been developed with a similar idea in mind, but Google appears to be the first of the large language model companies to introduce this feature.

Google's vision of an AI-driven future for search is coming to fruition with the rollout of AI Overviews in the US, and soon globally. This feature, previously dubbed the Search Generative Experience (SGE), introduces AI-generated summaries at the top of many search results, changing how billions interact with Google Search.

At the forefront of the tech giant's generative AI additions to search, revealed at its I/O 2024 event, are AI Overviews. This new tool aims to streamline search processes by presenting a concise, AI-generated summary at the top of search results. This new feature allows Google to provide AI-generated overviews or summaries directly in the search results, potentially offering more comprehensive answers to complex queries.

Here are some other key features that will come to Google Search in the coming weeks:

Search by Video Tweet may have been deleted

Google has expanded the functionality of Google Lens to include video-based search capabilities. Users can now capture video clips to initiate searches, allowing for a more dynamic and interactive query process. This feature caters to the growing demand for more intuitive and flexible search tools, accommodating various forms of user interaction with the digital world.

Planning with Search Credit: Google

Google's new planning tool automates the creation of personalized itineraries and meal plans with just a single query. By leveraging Gemini, this tool simplifies the planning process (e.g., travel or daily meals) by generating customized suggestions based on user preferences and previous interactions.

Contextual Search Credit: Google

Another feature is the AI-driven reorganization of search results based on the context of the query. For instance, when searching for restaurants in a new city, Google now categorizes the results to fit scenarios like date nights or business meetings. This tailored approach minimizes user effort in sifting through irrelevant information, making the search experience more efficient and user-friendly.

Featured Video For You Here’s everything that was announced at Google I/O.

Gemini is getting a facelift.

Sundar Pichai announced updates to Google's AI model at the company's annual Google I/O event on May 14, including updates to Gemini 1.5 Pro and a new model of Google Gemini called Gemini 1.5 Flash. 

"We want everyone to benefit from what Gemini can do," Pichai said.

Tweet may have been deleted

Gemini 1.5 Pro was originally announced in February, but the company announced at I/O that it's getting a bit of an update with new API features like video frame extraction, parallel function calling, and context caching. Pro will help support AI Overviews, Ask Photos, NotebookLM, and more. In the seemingly perpetual fight to the front of the AI world, Gemini 1.5 Pro is an invaluable resource for Google, which plans to use the AI model as the basis for Pixie — the new version of the Google Assistant — and other Google products.

And there's a new member to Google's family of AI models, showing the world a new model: Gemini 1.5 Flash. It has much of the same capabilities as 1.5 Pro but should run faster and more efficiently due to lower latency and a lower cost to serve.

As Josh Woodward, the senior director of product management inside Google's Labs incubator group, said at I/O, Gemini 1.5 Pro is for "complex and general tasks" and "high-quality responses," while Gemini 1.5 Flash is for "high-frequency and narrow tasks" and "fastest response time." Both of the products are "natively multimodal," which means you can prompt them with text, images, audio, and video.

SEE ALSO: Google I/O 2024: 'AI Agents' are AI personal assistants that can return your shoes

"Today, we're introducing Gemini 1.5 Flash," Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind who introduced Flash, said. "Flash is a lighter-weight model compared to Pro. It's designed to be fast and cost-efficient to serve at scale while still featuring multi-model reasoning capabilities and breakthrough long context."

In a blog post, Hassabis said Gemini 1.5 Flash "excels at summarization, chat applications, image and video captioning, data extraction from long documents and tables, and more."

You can give both Gemini 1.5 Pro and Gemini 1.5 Flash today globally in Google AI Studio and Vertex AI. Developers can sign up to try two million tokens by heading to ai.google.dev/gemini-api. Gemini 1.5 Pro is $7 for one million tokens, but for prompts up to 128,000, it's just $3.50 for one million tokens. Gemini 1.5 Flash will start at $0.35 for one million tokens up to 128,000.

"We're so excited to see what all of you will create with it," Hassabis said.

Google has a new AI agent that can tell you things about what's around you. A lot of things.

Called "Project Astra," it's a Gemini-based multimodal AI tool that lets you point your phone's camera at real-life stuff and get a spoken description of what you're looking at.

In a demo, shown during Google's I/O conference Tuesday, the tool was pointed at a loudspeaker, correctly identifying a part of it as a tweeter. Far more impressively, the phone's camera was then turned onto a snippet of code on a computer display, with Astra yielding a fairly detailed overview of what the code's doing.

Finally, the person testing Project Astra turned their phone towards the window and asked "What neighborhood do you think I'm in?" After a few seconds, Gemini replied: "This appears to be the King's Cross area of London," along with a few details about the neighborhood. Finally, the tool was asked to find a misplaced pair of glasses, and it complied, saying exactly where the glasses were left.

In perhaps the most interesting part of the video, we see that those glasses are actually some kind of smart glasses, which can again be used to prompt Gemini about what the wearer sees - in this case giving a suggestion on a diagram drawn on a whiteboard.

SEE ALSO: Google I/O 2024: 'AI Agents' are AI personal assistants that can return your shoes

According to Google's DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, something like Astra could be available both on a person's phone or glasses. The company did not, however, share a launch date, though Hassabis said that some of these capabilities are coming to Google products "later this year."

Featured Video For You Here’s everything that was announced at Google I/O.

Google will be sharing lots of products ready to utilize at today's big Google I/O event.

However, one announcement from CEO Sundar Pichai was more of an idea that's in the works: AI Agents. According to Pichai, AI Agents are still in "early days," but their description shows what Google envisions what AI can do for users. 

What are 'AI Agents'?

Pichai described AI agents as "intelligent systems that show reasoning, planning, and memory" and can "think multiple steps ahead" to complete more compex tasks for users.

Shopping returns is a specific example used at Google I/O to give a real-world use case for AI agents. Pichai explained a scenario where a user wants to return a pair of shoes they purchased. AI agents will be able to search the user's email inbox for the receipt, locate the order number from the email, fill out the return form on the store's website, and schedule a pickup for the item to be returned.

Google showed off how AI agents could be of help when returning products to the store. Credit: Google I/O

Another scenario provided involves AI agents searching up local shops and services, like dog walkers and dry cleaners, for a user that just moved to a new city, so that the user has all of these locations and contacts at their disposal. A key feature mentioned here was that Gemini and Chrome would work together to complete these takes, showing how AI agents would be able to work across various software and platforms. 

It's an interesting concept, but also weird in some aspects. We'll keep our eyes peeled for AI agents in the near-to-maybe-not-so-near future.

Featured Video For You Here’s everything that was announced at Google I/O.

At Google's annual I/O conference, the tech giant announced a more powerful AI-based search experience within Google Photos.

People upload 6 billion photos and videos to the platform every day, and now they'll be able to search for those elements more efficiently using not just keywords but phrases.

SEE ALSO: Google I/O 2024: AI Overviews are rolling out to users this week

CEO Sundar Pichai gave one example: "Say you're at a parking station ready to pay," he told the audience, "but you can't recall your license plate number." Now you can ask Google Photos something like, "What's my license plate number again?"

It's unclear how Gemini will know to bring up your license plate number instead of all photos with a license plate in them, but Pichai says Gemini does.

Another example was reminiscing on family memories. Ask Google Photos, "When did Lucia learn to swim?" for example, says Pichai, and "Gemini goes beyond a simple search, recognizing different contexts from doing laps in the pool to snorkeling in the ocean to the text and dates on our swimming certificates." Then it packages those photos and videos together for you.

SEE ALSO: OpenAI isn't just competing with Google Search. It's coming for Google Assistant, Alexa & Siri, too.

It's been teased and tested for over a year, but it's finally here: AI Overviews in Search.

SEE ALSO: Google I/O 2024: What to expect after OpenAI's GPT-4o reveal

The first major announcement of Google's I/O 2024 event, the tech giant started off with the reveal that its Search Generative Experience (SGE) labs feature will be rolling out to US users within the week. This new feature allows Google to provide AI-generated overviews or summaries directly in the search results, potentially offering more comprehensive answers to complex queries.

The aim is to improve the user's experience by leveraging AI to aggregate and synthesize information from various web sources, delivering it in an easily digestible format. In May 2023, Google introduced its AI-enhanced search feature, which it characterized as an "AI-powered snapshot of key information to consider, with links to dig deeper."

However, the results were inconsistent when Mashable conducted tests on this feature on Google Labs. Reporter Cecily Mauran noted that this tool cluttered Google's results pages, overshadowed already useful features, and mentioned that unexpectedly encountering an AI-generated result could be somewhat disconcerting.

That doesn't mean that Google hasn't improved on SGE since then. The keynote has only started so you can watch live here.

Featured Video For You Here’s everything that was announced at Google I/O.

The new DJ mode for Google's Music FX got the best presentation possible ahead of its Google I/O 2024 event. Featuring acclaimed DJ Marc Rebillet, the new addition to the tech giant musical generative AI lets anyone become a middle-aged DJ in real-time.

SEE ALSO: Google I/O 2024 keynote: How to watch live

The DJ mode was first introduced in March, just months after Google released Music FX in December of last year. DJ Mode allows users to generate music through text prompts, focusing on instrumental tracks without the ability to include vocals or specific artist references. This mode is particularly innovative because it starts with user-generated descriptions or "chips," which can then be manipulated to create live beats and music loops. Users can adjust the music dynamically by changing the prompts, which are reflected in the live mix within seconds.

DJ Marc Rebillet at Google I/O Credit: Mashable / Google

Despite its capabilities, Google emphasizes that MusicFX is experimental and could be subject to changes or discontinuation. Therefore, it's recommended for casual exploration rather than serious or commercial applications. Like its counterpart, ImageFX, MusicFX uses a similar method of converting text prompts into adaptable options for creative output, though DJ Mode focuses specifically on music.

You can watch the Google I/O 2024 event here.

The first teaser for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 is here, promising Sauron like you've never seen him before. (Blond.)

J.R.R. Tolkien's legendary villain (played by Charlie Vickers) spent most of The Rings of Power Season 1 disguised as human Halbrand, only revealing his true nature in the Season 1 finale. But now that Sauron is officially back in action, it won't be long until his darkness threatens to corrupt all of Middle-earth for good.

SEE ALSO: Sauron slays in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' Season 2 trailer

The Season 2 teaser leans heavily on that encroaching darkness, highlighting Sauron's new destructive tactics and his bold new form. From new rings to unexpected team-ups, here are the seven most exciting moments from the Rings of Power Season 2 teaser.

1. Sauron becomes Annatar in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 New look, same evil. Credit: Screenshot: Prime Video

If you take one thing away from this teaser, let it be this: It's Annatar time!

Annatar, also known as the Lord of Gifts, is Sauron's fair form. In Tolkien's The Silmarillion, he takes on this disguise to nudge Elven smith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) into forging the Rings of Power for dwarves and men. While Celebrimbor creates the Elven rings last in The Silmarillion, he makes them first in the show, meaning that The Rings of Power is switching up Tolkien's ring-forging timeline. However, the appearance of Annatar — because who else would blond, Elven Sauron really be? — in the teaser suggests that the Lord of Gifts isn't done gifting quite yet. Perhaps he'll even pay Celebrimbor another visit, explaining the brief shot of the two of them in the same room together towards the end of the teaser.

SEE ALSO: 'House of the Dragon' Season 2 trailer: Westeros prepares for war 2. The Rings of Power forges even more rings in Season 2 "Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky." Credit: Screenshot: Prime Video

Season 1 of The Rings of Power ended with the forging of the three Elven rings, and the Season 2 trailer shows them off in all their glory in the above shot. The three Elven ring bearers in Tolkien's legendarium are Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), the High King Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker), and shipwright Círdan. We met the first two in Season 1, and showrunner Patrick McKay confirmed in an interview with Deadline that Círdan will be playing a major role in the series going forward. Brace yourselves for more Elven ring action!

Put that ring back where it came from or so help me! Credit: Screenshot: Prime Video

But the Elven rings aren't the only rings we're working with this season. The teaser also shows off Durin III (Peter Mullan) taking a good long look at a ring of his own. That likely means we're getting the "seven [rings] for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone" in Season 2. But do they come from friendly forges? Or is this more of Sauron's trickery at work? I'm going to guess the latter.

SEE ALSO: 10 burning questions we have after 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' finale 3. Sea monsters and nasty tendrils — things are getting scary in Middle-earth! What is this? Credit: Screenshot: Prime Video

I did not expect the Rings of Power teaser to send a chill down my spine, but then that gargantuan sea monster showed up. The rest, as they say, is spine-chilling history.

AND WHAT IS THIS? Credit: Screenshot: Prime Video

The sea monster isn't the only freaky beastie at play in The Rings of Power Season 2. The trailer features a frightening, humanoid mass of black tendrils crawling out of the ground, as well as tree roots worming their way menacingly through a forest. And we can't forget Galadriel's red-tinged scream queen moment! Looks like Sauron's darkness is taking hold already.

4. Arondir and Isildur — who did not die! — team up New potential bromance just dropped. Credit: Screenshot: Prime Video

The Rings of Power left Isildur's (Maxim Baldry) fate up in the air at the end of Season 1, with the Númenorean soldier getting trapped in the fallout from the volcanic explosion that created Mordor. However, the Season 2 teaser proves that he's very much alive. No surprise there, since Isildur has a big part to play in the founding of Gondor and the coming fight against Sauron.

SEE ALSO: 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' is basically 'Cats: The Musical'

Not only is Isildur alive, he's also teamed up with an unexpected ally: elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova). They're only together onscreen for a brief amount of time, but this is a partnership I'm fully ready for.

5. The Stranger is still doing his mysterious magical thing in Season 2 of The Rings of Power It's magic time! Credit: Screenshot: Prime Video

The Season 1 finale of The Rings of Power all but confirmed outright that the figure known as the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) is actually Gandalf. And in Season 2, it looks like we're going to see some more of his powerful Istari magic in action. The Stranger only appears for a flash in the Season 2 trailer, but it's enough time for him to summon a powerful windstorm — one that nearly sends his Harfoot traveling companion Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) flying.

Please help Nori. Credit: Screenshot: Prime Video

Remember, these two are headed to the land of Rhûn in the east, which is a fairly underdeveloped region compared to other areas of Tolkien's work. It's the home of the Easterlings, who later choose to serve Sauron, but other than that, this is uncharted territory — both for Nori and the Stranger, and for the audience.

6. Expect battles galore The charge of the elf brigade. Credit: Screenshot: Prime Video

The Rings of Power Season 1 stunned us with its epic battle between the forces of Númenor and the orcs of the Southlands. Based on this new teaser, it looks like the show hopes to match (or even surpass) that level of action in Season 2.

This is not what we meant when we said light the beacons. Credit: Screenshot: Prime Video

We see several shots of elves like Galadriel and Elrond (Robert Aramayo) gearing up for battle, including a sequence where Elrond leads an army charging into battle. Perhaps most intriguing is a night-time battle sequence where catapults rain fire upon an Elven city. Is this the realm of Lindon coming under attack?

7. Is that... Barad-dûr? All that's missing is a giant glowing eye. Credit: Screenshot: Prime Video

The final seconds of the Rings of Power Season 2 teaser deliver one of the most exciting — and slightly terrifying — Sauron moments yet. Faced with several angry elves, including Celebrimbor, Sauron (in Annatar form) flexes his hands and sends a massive icy blast across the landscape. As he does, we see a castle that is exactly what you'd picture if someone told you to imagine an evil lair. It's dark, it's spiky, it's gargantuan — and it might just be Barad-dûr, Sauron's central fortress in Mordor.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 premieres Aug. 29 on Prime Video.

SAVE $119.01: As of May 14, get the Google Pixel Tablet (128GB) with charging speaker dock at Woot for $379.99, which is $119.01 off its normal price of $499 (when you buy the tablet and speaker separately). That's $20 less than the typical price of $399 for a Google Pixel Tablet alone.

Opens in a new window Credit: Woot! Google Pixel Tablet (128GB) with Charging Speaker Dock $379.99 at Woot
$499.00 Save $119.01 Get Deal

In the market for a tablet, but don't want an Apple or Samsung device? There are other options, including one you might not be considering: a Google Pixel Tablet. The company's first tablet is a capable one that works best when paired with its essential-for-optimal-performance charging speaker dock. And you can get both for a great price right now at Woot.

As of May 14, get the Google Pixel Tablet with a charging speaker dock for just $379.99 at Woot. That's a discount of $119.01 compared to when you buy both devices separately via Google, and $20 less than the typical price of $399 for a Google Pixel Tablet alone. This particular deal is for the Porcelain colorway, and you're getting a new tablet rather than a refurbished or used unit like Woot occasionally sells. The deal is live for the next day or until the tablets sell out.

SEE ALSO: Get up to $50 off Amazon Fire tablets for kids ahead of the Amazon Book Sale

Mashable reviewer Alex Perry called the tablet "fine," acknowledging that its speaker dock "changes everything." That transforms it into a useful mini-TV and a much more palatable purchase, and since you get it as part of this bundle, you'll be getting the optimal version to play around with for $120 less.

"I used to connect my phone to a Bluetooth speaker to do that stuff, but not anymore," Perry says. "There are also plenty of other use cases that I didn’t even touch. For instance, you can connect all your Google Home-compatible devices to the Pixel Tablet, turning the latter into a mobile command center. Beyond that, you can obviously use the docked tablet for video calls and even cast videos from your phone to the tablet."

The Google Pixel Tablet is powered by the Tensor G2 processor and has an 11-inch LCD display. It can connect to other Pixel devices and you can use it as a smart home hub to manage all of your in-home devices. Otherwise, you can rely on it to watch content, make video calls, and listen to music with the excellent speaker dock. It might be priced a bit steeply outside of this deal, but for this discounted rate, it's worth it just to check out the speaker alone.

SAVE $60: The Carrera Smart Sunglasses with Alexa are on sale at Amazon for $329.99, marked down from the normal price of $389.99. That's a 15% discount.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Carrera Smart Sunglasses with Alexa $329.99 at Amazon
$389.99 Save $60.00 Get Deal

Summer is just a few blinks away, and what better way to welcome in the warmth than with a long stroll in the sun? How about listening to your favorite tunes or playing an audiobook while you walk? If these two activities sound like your ideal summer, Amazon has a great deal in store today.

As of May 14, the Carrera Smart Sunglasses with Alexa are $329.99 at Amazon, discounted from the normal price of $389.99. That's $60 off.

SEE ALSO: Jam out this summer with up to 38% off portable speakers

The Carrera Smart Sunglasses with Alexa are multi-purpose, serving as polarized sunglasses, open-ear headphones, and your connection to Alexa. First and foremost, the sunglasses protect your eyes from harmful rays with polarized lenses that have UV400 protection. Since you'll be wearing them in the summer, the IPX4 water and sweat resistance can also be useful. There's also an anti-reflective coating on the lenses.

In terms of sound, the Carrera Smart Sunglasses with Alexa are designed with open-ear audio, which means you can tune in without having to wear headphones or earbuds. The sunglasses direct audio into your ears while minimizing the amount of sound that leaks into your surroundings. This means you can walk the beach while listening to your summer jams and also hear the waves. The smart glasses also eliminate the need for earbuds or headphones, which are oh-so-easy to forget at home.

You can also take calls on the Carrera Smart Sunglasses with Alexa, giving you hands-free power. If you're on a call and don't want the other end to hear what's on your side, a double-press can mute the audio.

The smart sunglasses get up to six hours of battery life with continuous media playing or up to 14 hours with moderate usage. Amazon mentions it takes about two and a half hours to fully recharge the smart glasses on the included charging stand.

If you're the type who prefers to simplify tech, the Carrera Smart Sunglasses with Alexa can serve as sunglasses, personal audio speakers, and a hands-free way to take phone calls. Summer walks could be better than ever thanks to the features you'll get with these smart sunglasses, not to mention the stylish design.

UPDATE: May. 14, 2024, 12:00 p.m. EDT This article has been updated with the lastest information regarding Prime Day 2024.

Amazon Prime Day is officially back for the tenth year running.

Amazon confirmed that the savings event will take place this July (with exact dates TBD). We're expecting another mid-July 48 hours of deals, with weeks of early deals leading up to the main event.

The event is for Prime members only, but all inflation-weary shoppers searching for deals can get their hands dirty by signing up for Amazon's 30-day free trial.

We're expecting a lot of great deals to be had, but the mega-sale doesn't have to be as overwhelming as it sounds. Our pro tip for saving money (time, and sanity) during Prime Day 2024? Organize (and actually follow) a wishlist. Practices like pinning down must-have items ahead of time or setting price drop alerts can help you stay on track with your spending rather than crossing into buyer's remorse territory after a ravenous "add to cart" spree.

SEE ALSO: Prime Day 2024: When it's happening and everything else we know so far Tip #1: Organize your Amazon wishlist

If it’s news to you that Amazon even offers such a feature, here’s how it works:

Every product page on the retail giant’s website has a little “add to list” button right around where the “add to cart” button is located (very convenient placement). Click on that, and you can add said product to your personal Amazon wishlist, or any other list that you’ve created for yourself on your profile.

Do this with every gadget, gizmo, and knick-knack you think would make a worthy addition to your collection of goods. What you’ll end up with is an organized, definitive page of all that you desire. View it all at a glance, or even rank each item based on how much you want it.

Your Amazon wishlist is one of the most useful tools that you have at your disposal come Prime day.

Then, and here's the important part, be sure to check back on your list when Amazon Prime Day 2024 kicks into high gear — you’ll be able to see which products have gone on sale and snatch them up before they’re gone.

WARNING: Only add the necessities to your wishlist or risk critical failure and end up with mass shipments of shit you don’t need, never needed, and will never need. (Did you *have* to get that life-size cardboard cutout of Danny DeVito? No. No, you didn’t. But now he’s standing there in the corner of your living room. And he’s watching you.)

Tip #2: Turn on wishlist alerts

That’s not where the perks of "wishlisting" cap out. If you download Amazon’s mobile companion app, you’ll be granted the added benefit of "wishlist alerts."

These alerts can aid in notifying you when an item on your wishlist becomes a “lightning deal,” as well as when a sold-out item on your wishlist goes back in stock.

This isn’t a notification setting that's turned on by default, so you’ll have to go in and check it off yourself. All you have to do is open up the Amazon app, go into your settings, then to your notifications, and click on “your watched and waitlisted deals.”

It's this one. Credit: Screenshot Tip #3: Turn on Alexa's advanced deal alerts

As it turns out, newer Echo smart speakers are good for more than just bumping out your playlists. They can also notify you of a sale on an item in your wishlist, shopping cart, or "saved for later" queue up to 24 hours before it even goes live.

• Open up the Alexa mobile app to turn on the advanced deal alerts feature. You'll find it under More > Settings > Notifications > Amazon Shopping

• Once you're there, click Shopping Recommendations and then Deal Recommendations. Since you already have your wishlist organized and ready to go, that's all there is to it.

• You'll see a pop-up alert or a yellow ring light on your Echo device whenever Alexa finds out about an upcoming deal on products in your wishlist. Ask, "Alexa, what are my notifications?" to get the scoop.

You can either have Alexa let you know once the deal is live or even give her the go-ahead to order it for you ("Alexa, buy it for me"). Your default payment and delivery address on file will be used automatically.

Voilà — now you’ll never miss a deal for something you want. Your Amazon wishlist is one of the most useful tools that you have at your disposal to ensure a successful shopping experience.

Also, keep a watchful eye out for our Amazon Prime Day coverage, where we’ll be highlighting all the best deals that you can get your hands on.

Season 2 of "House of the Dragon" premieres June 16 on HBO and Max.