Google Cloud Expands Partnership with Snap Inc.

While most people leverage artificial intelligence today via voice or text, there is an increasing need for chatbots to engage with other media, such as photographs and video. As a result, many companies are looking to offer consumer and enterprise AI solutions that interact with more channels.

To this end, Google Cloud recently announced its expanded strategic partnership with Snap Inc. to power generative AI experiences within My AI, Snapchat's AI-powered chatbot (and one of the largest consumer chatbots available today). In the announcement, the two companies indicated that Snapchat "plans to leverage the multimodal capabilities of Gemini on Vertex AI," particularly the technology's ability to understand and operate across different types of information like text, audio, image, video and code. This will reportedly offer more engaging and innovative features for the Snapchat community through My AI.

First launched on Google Cloud in 2011, Snapchat offers a way for users to communicate visually. The continued popularity of its core product values helps distinguish Snapchat from other internet platforms and has enabled the platform to grow to reach more than 850 million monthly active users, said the company.

As an example of the new capabilities expected from the partnership, the companies noted that "with Gemini on Vertex AI integrated into the app, Snapchatters can ask My AI to translate a photo of a street sign while traveling abroad or take a video of different snack offerings to ask which one is the healthiest option."

"This partnership with Google Cloud reinforces everything that's so important to serving our community,” said Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap, in a statement. “Snap is all about empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together. Now with Gemini in My AI, Snapchatters can learn so much more about the world, do it really quickly in the moment, and easily share that with friends.”