What you need to know
- Google revealed the date of I/O 2025 last week with an interactive puzzle game.
- Later, it shared that key parts of the game were made using the Gemini API and Google AI Studio.
- Google says leveraging AI to build the game saved time creating things that otherwise could’ve been done manually.
By now, you probably know that Google I/O 2025 — the company’s annual developer conference — is happening May 20 and May 21, 2025 at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. The company announced as much last week, by way of a fun puzzle game with lasers, prisms, and mirrors. But you might not know that Google used the Gemini API and the Google AI Studio to make the “Save the date” puzzle for the first time this year.
Google created secret levels for the puzzle game this year for the most passionate completionists out there. When a puzzle is loading, the Gemini API adds a secret tile on the game’s board and presents a clever riddle to help players find it. You’ll need to solve these Gemini-created riddles to unlock the bonus levels. Google says this kind of thing is something it could’ve manually coded, but the Gemini API and Google AI Studio helped it save time.
“Google AI Studio helped us integrate the feature faster in a unique, creative way,” said Jay Chang, a senior product marketing manager at Google, in a blog post. “We programmatically generated the prompts for Gemini 1.5 Flash, using code, and then let it get creative in how it crafted the riddles.”
It’s a unique preview of what can be done with the Gemini API and Google AI Studio to save app developers time while creating new experiences. It’s also very fitting for the Google I/O 2025, since the event’s main focus is to help developers learn and try the new APIs and AI features Google introduces each year. That’s what I/O is all about — it’s not really for the average Android user.
There’s also a bit of deeper meaning behind Google’s choice of lasers and mirrors, beyond looking like the “I” and “O” in Google I/O.
“Prisms and mirrors are integral tools in quantum computing, used to manipulate and analyze light and quantum states,” explained Kacey Fahey, a Google senior product marketing manager. “This year’s puzzle design was inspired by these concepts, challenging players to use reflections and refractions to solve complex puzzles.”
You can still replay the Google I/O 2025 puzzle game here, as you wait for the developer conference to start in late May. You can register for Google I/O 2025 here.
