But Google isn’t just creating a slew of new products. It’s how they’ll riff off each other that gets Pichai animated during our hour-long conversation. Each new thing — from the Allo chat app to a smart home speaker code-named Chirp — boasts artificial intelligence and machine learning that allows it to serve as a playground for Pichai’s new “Google assistant.”

It’s as if Google is transferring its very essence from that sparse white homepage into every piece of tech you own (your phone, car, smartwatch) and online service you use. Unlike today’s search box, this assistant will learn about you from your behavior. It will know you’re a vegetarian, so won’t recommend steakhouses for dinner. It will understand context: If you’ve just bought Golden State Warriors tickets, the next time you mention Curry, it will know you’re talking about Steph and not Thai curry.

All that, says Pichai, signals profound changes in the way we use information.

Think of it this way: For pretty much the entire time people have been online, the Internet has been a tool, like a hammer or a library card. You use them when you need them. But a hammer will never automatically build you a house — let alone one with a Craftsman exterior because you’ve been reading up on early 20th century architecture. Google wants to be that overachieving hammer.

“It’s Google asking users, ‘Hi. How can I help?’” Pichai says. “Think of it as building your own individual Google.”

The idea of a digital assistant isn’t new. Apple teased the world with an online concierge named “Phil” almost three decades ago as part of its vision for a “Knowledge Navigator. ” Today, Apple has Siri, Microsoft has Cortana and Amazon has Alexa. And in the movies, Tony Stark has Jarvis.

Google has been doing this for years, too.

Google Now pops things up on your phone when the service thinks they’re relevant, thanks in part to Google’s Knowledge Graph, which understands a billion entities — people, places and things — and the relationships among them. Pichai now wants that know-how in even more places. He also thinks Google has the competition beat because of its heritage as a search company that’s been “organizing the world’s information.”

“There is no better engine of answering any question that you have,” says Rishi Chandra, vice president of product management for Google’s line of devices for the living room, including the Chromecast audio and video streaming stick. “We fundamentally believe that.”

So does the rest of the world, which queries Google more than a trillion times a year. That’s about 3 billion searches a day. A decade ago, Google translated two languages. Today, it’s talking to folks in over 100 languages and translating more than 140 billion words every day.

Here to serve

While Pichai has been talking up AI and machine learning for a while, I/O 2016 is Google’s first showcase for products with the assistant baked into their DNA.

Chirp, the smart home speaker now officially called Google Home, will likely get outsized attention. Unlike Amazon’s Echo, Google Home’s physical design can be customized so it blends in with your furniture. Its interchangeable parts means you can pick, say, different colored fabrics if you want it in your bedroom or metallic finishes if it’s going to live in your kitchen.

You’ll be able to ask it anything using the trigger words, “OK Google,” Pichai explains. One of the phones in his office, hearing him say that phrase, dings and leaps into action. But the company may add more code words in the future, like “Hey Google.” (In the Google app on Android devices in the US, 20 percent of searches are now by voice, he adds.)

Google Home lets you request anything you’d type into the search box. It will also tell you if your flight’s delayed, your package has arrived and what’s next on your calendar. It can dim your lights, put on a movie, and work with other gadgets, like Google’s $35 Chromecast. That means you can sync up music to speakers in different rooms or queue up “Broad City” on your TV.

