I sat through the opening keynote of Google I/O the other day and I came away feeling empty. Google will tell you that they announced 100 things at I/O and we wrote many of them up and shared in our own voice what we think about them. But you know what? I still feel like I left there with nothing. If AI isn’t your life, I’m not sure what else there was for you.
There was token bragging, a joke about “tokenmaxxing” that only landed with 20 too-plugged-in people, and a mention of quadrillion somethings that had me crying tears of the final droplets of water in nearby drying lake beds. We danced from Antigravity to the 2.0 version to a dozen products under the Gemini umbrella, many of which came with a flashy demo you’ll never end up seeing because you need to pay $100 per month to Google if you want access. Prior to the I/O keynote, that price was $250 per month, but they cut us all a deal.
It was all a lot and very much nothing. Again – empty. Shit, I really need to stop using the em dash. I promise, I write everything here and always will.
Anyways, I/O wasn’t fun because all of the fun stuff came the week prior. Google’s “The Android Show: I/O Edition” landed and gave us a peek at the future of Android, what’s coming to cars, and previewed upcoming hardware like the I/Os of old with a Googlebook announcement. There’s some genuinely cool stuff on the way.
The fun that used to be Google I/O feels so far in the past. Media and developers used to gather and the headlines were about whatever the next version of Android was or which app was getting a makeover or where Google’s hardware focus was turning to. It was a playful experience that also delivered something new for us to touch or use or update to. It was all straight-forward because the focus was always about products or features we could easily adopt or that were already a part of our lives. While it might have been targeted at developers, Google was so good at presenting everything in a way that brought us all together.
It’s not that way anymore. Now, it’s tokenmaxxing.
Enough from me, the inspiration for this post came from a couple of reddit threads that should not be ignored. In the Android subreddit, the first post came from someone who said that “Everything announced at Google I/O 2026” makes them “want to sell [their] phone.” They argued that they don’t want opt-in by default, AI reading their emails, the new Google Search box, or interactive follow-ups from YouTube. All fair responses.
The thread now sits at 1,700+ upvotes with hundreds of comments, most of which are in agreement. The top comment rightly pointed out that one of the demos for Google Docs Live (here) was quite gross, as it involved someone headed to their high school’s career day to give a speech (that they forgot about until the day before!), but they relied on Gemini to write it out for them and even asked that it include “funny analogies.” We’re that far gone that an important speech like this is not only forgotten about, but we’re supposed to be fine with AI taking out the humanity and care from something that could have a deep impact on the lives of the kids listening?
Since the thread is long, I’ll suggest you read through it yourself, as the points brought up do come from both sides. Many argue that it’s time to switch to an iPhone, others noted that if you aren’t in the US you might not have to worry (because the US is AI unregulated hell and the early testing grounds for it all), and there were plenty showing concern over privacy.
That wasn’t the only thread, though. Another popped up yesterday (300+ upvotes and counting) to call Gemini “the new Copilot of Android,” which is pretty funny. The comments are similar to that first, with many arguing that this is all too much. One joked that “We’re about 2 years away from my calculator asking if I want an AI-generated summary of 7 + 5.” Don’t give them ideas, pal.
Others were quick to point out that so much of Gemini has been locked behind the paid tiers I mentioned above, so a lot of it isn’t available to you anyway. That said, Gemini is embedded within everything and has access to so much of your life. There are some controls for blocking some of that access, as long as you know where to go looking.
You tell me – (em dash!) is this what you asked for?
Read the original post: Google’s Gemini Takeover of Everything Finds Properly Big Reactions
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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