# News A running log of Pavan Kumar's work: AI projects, talks, articles, publications, and links. ## Launched Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar Launch. September 24, 2026. The visual presence tech behind the Beam video agents demoed at I/O. Link: [Read the announcement](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-3-8-live-with-live-avatar/) ## Keynote at the Product AI Micro Summit Talk. August 19, 2026. San Francisco, CA. Five lessons from shipping AI products. Links: [X](https://x.com/Centercode/status/2090237352669065384), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/social-speaker-pavan-promo-1080x1080-share-7488284962253873152-XWG9/) ## Patent published on hybrid meetings Publication. June 25, 2026. A system for more natural, eye-level video calls in hybrid meetings. Link: [Read about the patent](https://patentlyze.com/patent/google-eye-level-video-calls-hybrid-meetings/) ## Project Genie won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix for AI Craft Launch. June 24, 2026. The product I lead at Google Labs won the Grand Prix for AI Craft at Cannes Lions. Link: [Announcement](https://x.com/GoogleLabs/status/2069827839826809042) ## Launched grounding in Project Genie on real-world imagery at Google I/O Launch. May 20, 2026. Grounding world models with real-world imagery and expanding access internationally. Link: [Announcement](https://x.com/GoogleDeepMind/status/2057842131142590512) ## Previewed Beam video agents at Google I/O Launch. May 20, 2026. Walk up to a screen and talk to a life-size AI that looks back at you. Link: [Coverage](https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/google-io-beam-telepresence-ai-agent-demo/) ## Launched the Portraits pilot on YouTube Launch. December 16, 2025. YouTube began testing AI chatbots based on popular creators. Link: [Coverage](https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/youtube-tests-ai-chatbots-based-on-popular-creators/808093/) ## Launched Portraits with Kim Scott Launch. June 5, 2025. An experimental way to have a real-time conversation with an AI representation of an expert. Link: [Announcement](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-labs/portraits/) ## Project Starline evolved into Google Beam Launch. May 20, 2025. Google's 3D video communication technology moved toward a new AI-first platform. Link: [Announcement](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/research/project-starline-google-beam-update/) ## Cluster Toolkit featured in Google Cloud's push for scientific discovery Launch. April 11, 2025. Infrastructure for large-scale AI and HPC workloads that helps research teams move faster. Link: [Post](https://x.com/pk_notes/status/1910863793892061561) ## Launched dynamic layouts, dynamic tiles, and face match on Google Meet Launch. April 5, 2025. AI-powered video layouts that adapt framing and presentation for more natural meetings. Links: [Announcement](https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2025/03/dynamic-layouts-for-google-meet.html), [Demo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lXwF95jY2I) ## Launched Studio Look on Google Meet Launch. August 29, 2023. An AI-powered effect that improves video quality for more polished meetings. Link: [Announcement](https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2023/08/studio-look-google-meet.html) ## Introduced a simpler AI-powered prototype for Project Starline Launch. May 10, 2023. A more compact prototype made immersive 3D video communication easier to deploy. Link: [Announcement](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/research/project-starline-prototype/) ## Invited talk at Piedmont Hills Talk. November 4, 2022. San Jose, CA. ## Launched Google Meet AI features at Google I/O Launch. May 11, 2022. New hybrid-work features included Portrait Restore for clearer video calls. Link: [Announcement](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/workspace/hybrid-work-ai-tools-io-22/) ## Accelerated HPC applications with gVNIC on Google Cloud Launch. October 20, 2021. Improving network performance and efficiency for MPI workloads on Google Cloud. Link: [Announcement](https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/hpc/running-mpi-workloads-efficiently-on-google-cloud-using-gvnic) ## Launched Intel Select Solutions for HPC on Google Cloud Launch. August 5, 2021. Validated HPC configurations designed to simplify deployment on Google Cloud. Link: [Announcement](https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/hpc/intel-select-solutions-for-hpc-now-on-google-cloud) ## Launched the HPC VM Image on Google Cloud Launch. February 2, 2021. A ready-to-use virtual machine image for building and running HPC workloads. Link: [Announcement](https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/hpc/introducing-hpc-vm-images) ## Patent granted for video image processing and motion detection Publication. October 13, 2020. A Cocoon Cam system for detecting motion across images in a video feed. Link: [View the patent](https://patents.google.com/patent/US10803580B2/) ## Non-Contact Video-Based Neonatal Respiratory Monitoring Publication. October 6, 2020. Research on using non-contact video to monitor neonatal respiration, published in Children. Link: [Read the paper](https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/7/10/171) ## Keynote at Samsung NEXT's AI Is Changing the World series Talk. September 24, 2019. San Francisco, CA. A keynote on the impact and direction of AI. Link: [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pkpn_ai-computervision-machinelearning-share-6572172251804893185--39J/) ## Guest Commencement Speaker at UC San Diego Talk. June 14, 2018. La Jolla, CA. Addressed the graduating class at UC San Diego's Graduation Ceremony. Link: [Read the story](https://today.ucsd.edu/story/grad-table) ## Named an INK Fellow and gave a talk at INK 2016 Talk. September 20, 2016. Selected as an INK Fellow and spoke at the INK Conference. Link: [Watch the talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf_VHtDKO7c) ## Presented Cocoon Cam at the first-ever White House Demo Day Talk. August 4, 2015. Washington, DC. Invited to show Cocoon Cam at the first White House Demo Day. Link: [Read the story](https://cse.ucsd.edu/about/news/startup-cse-roots-present-first-ever-white-house-demo-day) ## My Favorite AI Products I Actually Use as a PM: 2026 Edition Article. Published 2026-06-30. 5 min read. An updated look at my PM toolkit as agentic AI starts retaining context, running on schedules, and handling multi-step work on its own. Read: [/writing/my-favorite-ai-products-i-actually-use-as-a-pm-2026-edition](/writing/my-favorite-ai-products-i-actually-use-as-a-pm-2026-edition) (plain text: [/writing/my-favorite-ai-products-i-actually-use-as-a-pm-2026-edition.md](/writing/my-favorite-ai-products-i-actually-use-as-a-pm-2026-edition.md)) ## My Favorite AI Products I Actually Use as a PM: 2025 Edition Article. Published 2025-09-07. 5 min read. Five AI products that actually made it into my daily PM workflow in 2025. Read: [/writing/my-favorite-ai-products-i-actually-use-as-a-pm](/writing/my-favorite-ai-products-i-actually-use-as-a-pm) (plain text: [/writing/my-favorite-ai-products-i-actually-use-as-a-pm.md](/writing/my-favorite-ai-products-i-actually-use-as-a-pm.md)) ## The Team You Feel Across the Room Article. Published 2025-09-07. 6 min read. Spot a great team in minutes: laughter during debugging, problems seen as puzzles, and a palpable sense of "we've got this." Read: [/writing/the-team-you-feel-across-the-room](/writing/the-team-you-feel-across-the-room) (plain text: [/writing/the-team-you-feel-across-the-room.md](/writing/the-team-you-feel-across-the-room.md)) ## Other pages - [Home](/) (plain text: [/home.md](/home.md)) - [About](/about) (plain text: [/about.md](/about.md)) - [Work](/work) (plain text: [/work.md](/work.md)) - [Chat with my AI twin](/studio) (plain text: [/studio.md](/studio.md)) - [Contact](/contact) (plain text: [/contact.md](/contact.md))