Google has introduced NBA star Stephen Curry on board to assist form the corporate’s {hardware}, options, and AI providers. The long-term partnership was introduced at the moment on the Made by Google occasion, with Curry becoming a member of the corporate as a “efficiency advisor” for Google’s Well being, Pixel, and Cloud merchandise, leaning into his athletic expertise and experience.
A part of Curry’s job will contain testing and offering suggestions for Fitbit’s new private well being coach, sharing “teaching strategies and philosophies” that can be utilized to enhance the function, in keeping with Google’s press launch. The well being coach is a Gemini-based chatbot that generates custom-made exercise routines and metric targets for Fitbit app customers based mostly on the well being targets they’re working in the direction of.
“This hands-on work has already begun, with Stephen and his staff of specialists working with our well being specialists and product and AI engineers to check our new merchandise and experiences, giving us extremely worthwhile suggestions,” says Google’s platforms and units head, Rick Osterloh. “Stephen’s elite insights and our AI expertise aren’t only for sports activities — our work collectively will present how anybody can use these merchandise and options to keep up a more healthy life-style and get extra achieved.”
As anticipated, this partnership additionally means Curry and his staff might be contract-bound to make use of Google’s {hardware} portfolio, together with Pixel telephones, watches, and earbuds. Curry can also be implementing AI instruments like Google Cloud’s AI Basketball Coach into his scholar coaching packages, which Google says may also help to “good your bounce shot” — one thing Curry most likely doesn’t want a lot assist with himself, with a 42 % common on three pointers for his profession.
The team-up will probably lead to Curry making some branded content material appearances, however we should wait and see if Google makes any significant product enhancements below Curry’s steerage.