Trusted testers invited for Astra, Jules, and Marine trials by Google

During an avalanche of announcements on Wednesday, Google also published several opt-in forms for trusted testers for three different projects. One of them, already known as it was announced at Google I/O back in May earlier this year, is called Project Astra.

This project powers the vision capabilities on Gemini Live. Reportedly, Google announced that Project Astra became available to trusted testers shortly after the announcement, while the broader release is anticipated for 2025. In general, Project Astra will allow users to open the camera during a Gemini Live session, enabling Gemini to see the content through the camera and respond accordingly.

Besides this, two other projects were announced within the scope of Google Labs. One of them is called Jules, a potential solution for coding. The Gemini-powered code assistant in Jules would be able to independently handle small tasks, like bug fixing, and execute them autonomously. It will also have access to GitHub. While it is not yet clear if Jules will evolve into a full-featured code editor, the possibilities look very promising.

The third project is called Project Marine, which is equally exciting. It will exist as a Chrome extension, allowing Gemini to fully control the Chrome browser. Essentially, this means Gemini will be able to open web pages, view their content, and potentially execute tasks autonomously on behalf of the user.

Both Jules and Project Marine promise to bring a significant boost in productivity by automating smaller, repetitive tasks in our everyday digital workflows.