Google I/O 2026 may be the worst its ever been

The annual Google I/O conference used to be focused on the development of Android and consumer-facing platforms. It was always an interesting, if sometimes irritating, event that caused a lot of speculation before WWDC.

Now it's an event where Android is mentioned once on stage, Gemini is the whole show, and some person at the end claims that their AI will solve all disease.

I watched the entire keynote waiting for the moment where I would say "oh, this is the thing people are going to be talking about." It never really arrived.

We heard about Gemini getting faster. Features that already existed are getting better. This model changes how we do this thing.

None of it felt applicable to me or any human I know in real life.

Every demo was painful. A person that couldn't compose an email to their team about what they accomplished that week. Somebody that needed help inviting their new friends to a block party. An AI-generated slideshow attached to an email.

It all felt like I was losing my mind.

Then there's a Mac on screen. Here's my chance, right? Nope, just some person highlighting some files, dictating some speech, and having Gemini create an email with a table of attachments.

It felt wrong.

The show wraps up with some more glasses styles that people can use to spy on women or harass massage parlor workers. Wonderful.

At the end, and I can't emphasize this enough, they shared that Gemini was helping with scientific advancements and that the goal is to solve all disease!

Now, I know AI has created quite the amount of psychosis and lack of real-world expectations, but this is next level. Everyone got pissed that Apple's AI that could tell them when to pick up their mom at the airport never arrived, but this is shat out at the end of the keynote to applause.

At least the internet seems to be slowly realizing what was said. Every article covering Google from now until the end of time needs to say "the company that plans to solve all disease" because that's a ludicrous statement to make.

It feels so weird to hear out loud when just a few hours prior, Apple shared some really interesting AI-integrated accessibility features for Global Accessibility Awareness Day. They were obvious improvements to existing platforms that didn't feel like AI slop.

Google had a few features that faced users, like a generation tool that had granular editing options and more AI video generation systems. But outside of flashy demos like that, I didn't really see anything that would appeal outside of a party trick.

At least with WWDC, I know Apple will announce features and updates to its operating systems. Yes, AI will be everywhere, but hopefully in a way that's thoughtful and useful for the end user.

The death of Google Search, the incredibly over-the-top promises, and the meh user-facing feature set and a bunch of "later this year on select devices" defined what should have been an exciting event about how developers can make their platforms better for users.

Instead, it was just a long keynote about how Google can make its services and systems better for Google. And as a fan of technology, that's just sad.

The most frustrating part of the whole ordeal is I can't even recall one feature that would be useful or helpful anywhere in my life. Even Google/Android has managed to get a "huh, neat" from me in the past. Or I'd even say "Apple should implement a similar feature.

To be honest. I can barely remember what was announced. Just a bunch of AI buzzwords, arbitrary compute increases, and generative functions that rob people of their intelligence and humanity.