Google is developing Project Jarvis, a new AI agent that browses the web for you, taking the phrase “Let me Google that for you” quite literally.
The rumor comes courtesy of The Information which reports “three people with direct knowledge of the product” expect the new computer-using AI could be demonstrated as early as December “alongside the release of its next flagship Gemini large language model, which would help power the product.”
Just imagine asking Google Chrome to search the web and book a holiday for you, allowing Jarvis AI to take over as an automated personal assistant to get tasks done – it’s wild, almost like the web browsing equivalent of the self-driving car.
Jarvis AI is very similar to Anthropic’s recently announced improvements coming to Claude AI which let the model take control of your computer to browse the web, launch applications, and even use your mouse and keyboard. Imagine that, but confined specifically to Google Chrome.
The Information’s report also claims Google’s AI agent can “respond 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.”
While we could see Jarvis AI by the end of the year, the insiders who spoke to The Information claim it could be released to just a small group of early testers before a major rollout. As it stands, “The agent currently operates relatively slowly because the model needs to think for a few seconds before taking each action.”
Are we ready for AI agents?
AI agents, like Google’s Jarvis, are systems that can complete tasks without human supervision, whether that’s controlling a computer or simply marking emails as read. Most of the major players in AI are trying to launch AI agents that can help single users and businesses facilitate mundane computer tasks, but at the current stage, most are still just experiments.
How do you feel about AI browsing the web for you? I suspect the general consensus is that we don’t quite trust AI models to complete tasks without the concern of hallucination. That said, if these rumors are correct we’ll see exactly what Google has planned in just a few months, and whether or not it can convince the average consumer that it’s time we let AI take control of our web searches.
