These Six New AI Features Are Coming to Chromebook Plus Devices

On Monday, Google announced the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14, the company's latest AI-focused Chromebook device. This particular Chromebook comes with a MediaTek Kompanio Ultra processor, an NPU with up to 50 TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second), and a battery life of up to 17 hours.

But the announcement isn't just about Google's latest Chromebook Plus device: The company is also rolling out new AI features for all of its Chromebook Plus devices. There are two new features here exclusive to the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 (and run entirely on-device), and an additional four that will work on your existing Chromebook Plus device.

Smart grouping (Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 only)

Google's latest Chromebook can organize both open tabs and documents into "logical groups" based on what you're currently doing on your Chromebook. In theory, the feature should help sort your various windows into organized sections, so that the appropriate tabs and docs are where they should be. In practice, though, I can imagine this being a bit of a disaster. What if the AI doesn't fully understand my workflow, and decides that tabs that are relevant to my work aren't actually relevant? I'd rather thumb through my own mess of tabs than try to decode the AI's interpretation of my work.

AI image editing in Gallery (Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 only)

Google says the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 can also edit images directly in the Gallery app using AI. While it may involve multiple editing features, the company highlights two examples: removing backgrounds with AI, and generating stickers from images. (I'd argue that second example doesn't really count as image editing, but I digress.)

Select to search with Lens

Google is bringing its "Circle to Search" feature to Chromebooks. The company is calling it "Select to search with Lens," allowing you to highlight a section of your screen to start an AI-generated web search. For example, if someone sends you a picture of sneakers, and you want to know where you can buy them, you can long-press the launcher, highlight the image of the sneaker, and let go, and a new web search will appear in a pop-up.

Text capture

"Text capture" is what Google is calling Optical Character Recognition (OCR), or a program's ability to understand text in an image and copy and paste it somewhere else. When you highlight an image that contains text, you'll see these OCR options appear, and while you can click the "copy" button to paste the text elsewhere, you may also have other options. If you highlight an invite, for example, you may see an option to add the details to a new calendar entry.

Quickly generate images with AI

Google has a new "Quick Insert" key for adding images, photos, or emojis to documents without having to leave the app first. While you can use existing images and emojis here, the hook is the ability to generate images with AI, and insert them directly into the document.

"Help me read" simplifies text

Google's existing "Help me read" feature is getting a new feature. In addition to summarizing a web page or answering questions about a document, "Help me read" can now simplify text as well. According to Google, the feature "takes complex language and makes it more understandable, turning dense text into an easier read."

That certainly could be helpful, but I can't help but wonder if we really want AI dumbing down everything we experience on our devices. If you're running late and need the Sparknotes version of whatever you're reading? Sure. If you really want to understand a topic that's well beyond your expertise? Okay. But I worry that this "Simplify" could get overused, to the point where we don't need to think through complex topics anymore.