Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Google is working on a next-level cloud compute for Android.
- With a promise to deliver on privacy and security, this could be a significant development.
- The new service could make agentic AI on phones possible and private.
Google is all in on AI, and with its latest advancement, it promises to offer local-level security and privacy, while also harnessing the power of the cloud.
This new service, called Private AI Compute, aims to deliver a more helpful, personal, and proactive AI experience, with safety and responsibility at its core.
Google’s pitch sounds a little like Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, doesn’t it?
Also: This new Google Gemini model scrolls the internet just like you do – how it works
With AI rapidly gaining ground in both capability and popularity, it’s evolving from traditional queries into the realm of completing tasks for users. This level of AI is capable of anticipating needs and handling tasks, which requires advanced reasoning and computational power.
The problem is, these advanced features are far beyond what on-device processing can handle. That’s where Private AI Compute comes into play. According to Google, the new service will not only unlock all the speed and power that agentic AI requires, but also ensure that your personal data remains private. As Google notes in its press release, “Private AI Compute allows you to get faster, more helpful responses, making it easier to find what you need, get smart suggestions and take action.”
How the new service works
But how does Private AI Compute protect your data?
Essentially, Google is applying the security and privacy safeguards embedded in devices like Pixel phones, guided by its Secure AI Framework, to its more robust cloud servers. All user data will remain isolated, private, and protected by an additional layer of security and privacy. That multi-layered system was designed from the ground up around Google’s core security and privacy principles, which are:
- Private AI Compute runs on one seamless Google stack, powered by custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs).
- Remote attestation and encryption are used to enable Gemini models to process data within a specialized and secure environment.
Also: 5 reasons I use local AI on my desktop – instead of ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude
With these principles combined, features like Magic Cue (which automatically surfaces relevant information and actions within apps) will become even more helpful and timely on the latest Pixel 10 phones. As well, the Pixel Recorder app will be able to summarize transcriptions across a wider range of languages.
What does this all mean?
Based on the press release, here’s my understanding of Google’s plans: The company recognizes that agentic AI tasks require significantly more power than a phone can offer, and building phones with sufficient capacity to achieve full agentic capabilities would be unaffordable for the general public.
To that end, it appears that Google is planning to utilize Private AI Compute to offload some of its AI functionality back to the cloud, while maintaining the same level of privacy as on-device computing.
As someone who doesn’t generally trust the privacy claims of companies building AI, I tend to stick with local-level processing (as you can achieve with a locally installed Ollama, for instance).
Also: I tried every new AI feature on the Google Pixel 10 series – my thoughts as an AI expert
Yes, Google claims that they won’t be able to view the data transmitted to the Private AI Compute servers, but does that mean they also won’t be building in the technology that can be used to generate profiles for users in order to push targeted ads?
I certainly want to believe this, but I’m hesitant to do so. And if Google plans to offload even more AI processing to the cloud, I might be inclined to either migrate to a different brand of phone or do my best to avoid AI (especially agentic AI) on my phones.
Let’s hope Google stands by its word and delivers on the promise of privacy and security. If they can do that, this new Private AI Compute could open up Pixel Phones to some seriously powerful AI processing that would otherwise be impossible. With that more powerful processing, the goal of delivering agentic AI to phones will be within reach.
