Google brings new Gemini features to Chromebooks, debuts first on-device AI

Google hasn’t been talking about Chromebooks as much since AI became its all-consuming focus, but that’s changing today with a bounty of new AI features for Google-powered laptops. Newer, more powerful Chromebooks will soon have image generation, text summarization, and more built into the OS. There’s also a new Lenovo Chromebook with a few exclusive AI goodies that only work thanks to its overpowered hardware.

If you have a Chromebook Plus device, which requires a modern CPU and at least 8GB of RAM, your machine will soon get a collection of features you may recognize from other Google products. For example, Lens is expanding on Chrome OS, allowing you to long-press the launcher icon to select any area of the screen to perform a visual search. Lens also includes text capture and integration with Google Calendar and Docs.

Gemini models are also playing a role here, according to Google. The Quick Insert key, which debuted last year, is gaining a new visual element. It could already insert photos or emoji with ease, but it can now also help you generate a new image on demand with AI.

Even though Google’s AI features are running in the cloud, the AI additions are limited to this more powerful class of Google-powered laptops. The Help Me Read feature leverages Gemini to summarize long documents and webpages, and it can now distill that data into a more basic form. The new Summarize option can turn dense, technical text into something more readable in a few clicks.

Google has also rolled out a new AI trial for Chromebook Plus devices. If you buy one of these premium Chromebooks, you’ll get a 12-month free trial of the Google AI Pro plan, which gives you 2TB of cloud storage, expanded access to Google’s Gemini Pro model, and NotebookLM Pro. NotebookLM is also getting a place in the Chrome OS shelf.