What to expect from Google this week

本周谷歌开发者大会前瞻

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. When Google opens its doors tomorrow for its annual developer conference, I/O, it will do so as a clear third place in the foundation model race. 本文最初发表于我们的 AI 每周通讯《算法》（The Algorithm）。若想第一时间在收件箱中获取此类报道，请点击此处订阅。当谷歌明天开启其年度开发者大会（I/O）时，它将以基础模型竞赛中明显的“第三名”身份亮相。

A year ago, at Google I/O 2025, the situation looked very different: The company was still riding high from the launch of Gemini 2.5 Pro that March, and distinguishing among the top-tier large language models often felt like a subjective splitting of hairs. But a foundation model’s reputation these days rests largely on its coding capabilities, and for months Google’s coding tools have been outgunned by Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex. 一年前的 2025 年谷歌 I/O 大会上，情况截然不同：当时谷歌正因 3 月份发布的 Gemini 2.5 Pro 而处于高光时刻，彼时区分顶级大语言模型往往被视为一种主观的吹毛求疵。但如今，基础模型的声誉很大程度上取决于其编程能力，而几个月来，谷歌的编程工具在 Anthropic 的 Claude Code 和 OpenAI 的 Codex 面前已显得力不从心。

Those systems are so dramatically superior to Google’s own offerings that the company has reportedly had to allow some engineers at DeepMind, its AI division, to use Claude for their work—lest they fall farther behind. So when I arrive at the conference in Mountain View, California tomorrow, I’ll certainly be on the lookout for any efforts Google is making to claw its way back into frontrunner position. 这些系统比谷歌自家的产品优越得多，据报道，谷歌甚至不得不允许其 AI 部门 DeepMind 的一些工程师在工作中使用 Claude，以免进一步落后。因此，当我明天抵达加州山景城的会议现场时，我肯定会密切关注谷歌为重回领先地位所做的任何努力。

But I’m also eager to see new developments in areas where Google shapes the cutting edge, such as AI for science. The company’s moves there might receive less attention, but they will be no less consequential. Here are three things I’ll be paying particular attention to over the next two days. 但我同样期待看到谷歌在引领前沿的领域（如科学 AI）中的新进展。该公司在这些方面的举措可能受到的关注较少，但其重要性丝毫不减。以下是我在未来两天将重点关注的三个方面。

An attempted coding comeback

编程领域的反击尝试

Google is taking its AI coding crisis seriously. According to reporting from The Information, there’s a new AI coding team at DeepMind. And the Los Angeles Times has reported that John Jumper, who shared a 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry with DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis for their work on the protein structure prediction software AlphaFold, is lending his talents to the efforts. 谷歌正在认真对待其 AI 编程危机。据《The Information》报道，DeepMind 成立了一个新的 AI 编程团队。《洛杉矶时报》也报道称，曾与 DeepMind CEO 戴密斯·哈萨比斯（Demis Hassabis）因蛋白质结构预测软件 AlphaFold 共同获得 2024 年诺贝尔化学奖的约翰·江珀（John Jumper），也正在为这些努力贡献才智。

I would be surprised if we don’t see a major new coding release at I/O, perhaps in the form of an update to the company’s Antigravity agentic coding platform. That said, we shouldn’t expect anything transformative here. Googlers have access to models and products that are substantially ahead of those released to the public, yet they were still reportedly fighting over who got access to Claude Code last month. Unless the company has made astonishing progress since then, Google probably won’t make it back to the coding frontier in the next two days. 如果 I/O 大会上没有发布重大的编程新产品，我会感到惊讶，这可能表现为对其 Antigravity 智能编程平台的更新。话虽如此，我们不应期待出现颠覆性的成果。谷歌员工所使用的模型和产品远超公开发布的版本，但据报道，上个月他们仍在争抢 Claude Code 的使用权。除非该公司自那时起取得了惊人的进展，否则谷歌在未来两天内恐怕难以重回编程领域的最前沿。

Science and health

科学与健康

Coding might be Google DeepMind’s weakness, but science is its conspicuous strength. It is the only frontier AI company to have earned a Nobel Prize. And as LLMs have come to dominate the AI-for-science landscape, Google has only solidified its lead. Last year, the company released multiple scientific AI tools, including the AI co-scientist, which formulates hypotheses and research plans in response to user questions and has been described as an “oracle” by one Stanford scientist, and AlphaEvolve, a system that iteratively discovers new solutions for mathematical and computational problems. 编程可能是 Google DeepMind 的弱项，但科学是其显著的强项。它是唯一一家获得诺贝尔奖的前沿 AI 公司。随着大语言模型（LLM）主导了科学 AI 领域，谷歌进一步巩固了其领先地位。去年，该公司发布了多款科学 AI 工具，包括“AI 共同科学家”（AI co-scientist）——它能根据用户问题制定假设和研究计划，被一位斯坦福科学家称为“神谕”；以及 AlphaEvolve——一个能迭代发现数学和计算问题新解的系统。

If any new scientific tools are announced at I/O, they’ll be worth noting. I’ll also be paying close attention to any moves Google makes in health and medicine. Google is doing some of the best research out there on LLM-based health tools, but OpenAI has defined the health AI conversation since the release of ChatGPT Health in January. Google has announced that it will be making its AI-powered Health Coach publicly available tomorrow, but promotional material suggests that the tool is geared more toward providing advice on topics such as fitness and diet than to addressing users’ medical concerns. Is this another area where Google has fallen behind, or is the company exercising appropriate caution in a high-stakes domain? 如果 I/O 大会上宣布了任何新的科学工具，都值得关注。我也会密切留意谷歌在健康和医疗领域的举措。谷歌在基于 LLM 的健康工具方面进行着业内顶尖的研究，但自 1 月份 ChatGPT Health 发布以来，OpenAI 一直主导着健康 AI 的话语权。谷歌已宣布将于明天公开其 AI 驱动的“健康教练”（Health Coach），但宣传材料显示，该工具更多是针对健身和饮食等话题提供建议，而非解决用户的医疗问题。这是谷歌落后的又一个领域，还是该公司在这一高风险领域保持了应有的谨慎？

The drama

戏剧性事件

While Google fans congregate down in Mountain View, roughly 30 miles north in Oakland the Elon Musk v. Sam Altman trial will be wrapping up. The past few months have seen more than their fair share of AI CEO drama—before the trial, the animosity between Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei took center stage as Anthropic and OpenAI worked to negotiate deals with the US Department of Defense. 当谷歌粉丝聚集在山景城时，大约 30 英里外的奥克兰，埃隆·马斯克诉山姆·奥特曼案的审判即将结束。过去几个月里，AI 领域 CEO 之间的戏剧性事件层出不穷——在审判前，随着 Anthropic 和 OpenAI 竞相与美国国防部谈判，奥特曼与 Anthropic CEO 达里奥·阿莫代（Dario Amodei）之间的敌意成为了焦点。

But DeepMind’s Hassabis has, for the most part, steered clear of such drama. He effectively presents himself as a Nobel Prize-winning nerd, and if he has written screeds about any of his peers, they haven’t been leaked to the press or appeared in legal discovery. That’s not to say that Google is controversy free. Last month, a group of 600 employees, many of whom work for DeepMind, sent a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai protesting an impending DoD deal. Google signed that deal the next day. Hassabis, Pichai, and all the other big names will surely do their best to skirt these and other touchy subjects while on stage, but controversies will worm their way in regardless. It will be interesting to see whether Google can maintain its veneer of neutrality. 但 DeepMind 的哈萨比斯在很大程度上避开了这些纷争。他有效地将自己塑造成一位获得诺贝尔奖的“书呆子”，如果他曾写过关于同行们的抨击言论，这些内容也从未泄露给媒体或出现在法律取证中。这并不是说谷歌没有争议。上个月，600 名员工（其中许多来自 DeepMind）致信 CEO 桑达尔·皮查伊（Sundar Pichai），抗议即将达成的国防部协议。谷歌在第二天就签署了该协议。哈萨比斯、皮查伊以及其他大人物在台上肯定会尽力回避这些敏感话题，但争议无论如何都会渗透进来。看看谷歌能否维持其中立的表象，将是一件有趣的事。