Publications

Our teams aspire to make discoveries that impact everyone, and core to our approach is sharing our research and tools to fuel progress in the field.

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Our teams aspire to make discoveries that impact everyone, and core to our approach is sharing our research and tools to fuel progress in the field.

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1 - 15 of 10505 publications
    Scaling Wearable Foundation Models
    Girish Narayanswamy
    Kumar Ayush
    Yuzhe Yang
    Orson Xu
    Shun Liao
    Shyam Tailor
    Jake Sunshine
    Tim Althoff
    Shrikanth (Shri) Narayanan
    Jiening Zhan
    Mark Malhotra
    Shwetak Patel
    Samy Abdel-Ghaffar
    Daniel McDuff
    2025
    Preview abstract Wearable sensors have become ubiquitous thanks to a variety of health tracking features. The resulting continuous and longitudinal measurements from everyday life generate large volumes of data. However, making sense of these observations for scientific and actionable insights is non-trivial. Inspired by the empirical success of generative modeling, where large neural networks learn powerful representations from vast amounts of text, image, video, or audio data, we investigate the scaling properties of wearable sensor foundation models across compute, data, and model size. Using a dataset of up to 40 million hours of in-situ heart rate, heart rate variability, accelerometer, electrodermal activity, skin temperature, and altimeter per-minute data from over 165,000 people, we create LSM, a multimodal foundation model built on the largest wearable-signals dataset with the most extensive range of sensor modalities to date. Our results establish the scaling laws of LSM for tasks such as imputation, interpolation and extrapolation across both time and sensor modalities. Moreover, we highlight how LSM enables sample-efficient downstream learning for tasks including exercise and activity recognition. View details
    Preview abstract Google has a long tradition of open-source software, which encompasses the field of operations research with OR-Tools. In development since 2008, it offers several solvers useful to many OR practitioners: - PDLP, a revolutionary first-order linear solver that is reshaping the landscape of linear optimisation; - CP-SAT, an award-winning constraint-programming solver; - Glop, an accurate linear solver; - Routing, a vehicle routing solver underpinning Google Maps Platform Route Optimization. OR-Tools has long had its features accessible from other languages: the core algorithms are implemented in C++ for performance, but users can tap into them in Python, Java, C#, or Go. It is recently available in Julia too, with a current focus on the linear and constraint solvers, either locally or remotely. We provide a wrapper for our solvers that brings them to JuMP.jl through MathOptInterface.jl. This tutorial will walk you through the features of OR-Tools and its solvers, then show examples of using OR-Tools from within Julia, either through JuMP or a lower-level interface. We will also share our experience of C++-Julia interop. View details
    Oculomics: Current Concepts and Evidence
    Zhuoting Zhu
    Yueye Wang
    Ziyi Qi
    Wenyi Hu
    Xiayin Zhang
    Siegfried Wagner
    Yujie Wang
    An Ran Ran
    Joshua Ong
    Ethan Waisberg
    Mouayad Masalkhi
    Alex Suh
    Yih Chung Tham
    Carol Y. Cheung
    Xiaohong Yang
    Honghua Yu
    Zongyuan Ge
    Wei Wang
    Bin Sheng
    Andrew G. Lee
    Alastair Denniston
    Peter van Wijngaarden
    Pearse Keane
    Ching-Yu Cheng
    Mingguang He
    Tien Yin Wong
    Progress in Retinal and Eye Research (2025)
    Preview abstract The eye provides novel insights into general health, as well as pathogenesis and development of systemic diseases. In the past decade, growing evidence has demonstrated that the eye's structure and function mirror multiple systemic health conditions, especially in cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and kidney impairments. This has given rise to the field of oculomics- the application of ophthalmic biomarkers to understand mechanisms, detect and predict disease. The development of this field has been accelerated by three major advances: 1) the availability and widespread clinical adoption of high-resolution and non-invasive ophthalmic imaging (“hardware”); 2) the availability of large studies to interrogate associations (“big data”); 3) the development of novel analytical methods, including artificial intelligence (AI) (“software”). Oculomics offers an opportunity to enhance our understanding of the interplay between the eye and the body, while supporting development of innovative diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic tools. These advances have been further accelerated by developments in AI, coupled with large-scale linkage datasets linking ocular imaging data with systemic health data. Oculomics also enables the detection, screening, diagnosis, and monitoring of many systemic health conditions. Furthermore, oculomics with AI allows prediction of the risk of systemic diseases, enabling risk stratification, opening up new avenues for prevention or individualized risk prediction and prevention, facilitating personalized medicine. In this review, we summarise current concepts and evidence in the field of oculomics, highlighting the progress that has been made, remaining challenges, and the opportunities for future research. View details
    Zero-Shot Image Moderation in Google Ads with LLM-Assisted Textual Descriptions and Cross-modal Co-embeddings
    Jimin Li
    Eric Xiao
    Katie Warren
    Enming Luo
    Krishna Viswanathan
    Ariel Fuxman
    Bill Li
    Yintao Liu
    (2025)
    Preview abstract We present a scalable and agile approach for ads image content moderation at Google, addressing the challenges of moderating massive volumes of ads with diverse content and evolving policies. The proposed method utilizes human-curated textual descriptions and cross-modal text-image co-embeddings to enable zero-shot classification of policy violating ads images, bypassing the need for extensive supervised training data and human labeling. By leveraging large language models (LLMs) and user expertise, the system generates and refines a comprehensive set of textual descriptions representing policy guidelines. During inference, co-embedding similarity between incoming images and the textual descriptions serves as a reliable signal for policy violation detection, enabling efficient and adaptable ads content moderation. Evaluation results demonstrate the efficacy of this framework in significantly boosting the detection of policy violating content. View details
    Preview abstract Many everyday tasks ranging from fixing appliances, cooking recipes to car maintenance require expert knowledge, especially when tasks are complex and multi-step. Despite growing interest in AI agents, there is a scarcity of dialogue-video datasets grounded for real world task assistance. In this paper, we propose a simple yet effective approach that transforms single-person instructional videos into task-guidance two-person dialogues, aligned with fine grained steps and video-clips. Our fully automatic approach, powered by large language models, offers an efficient alternative to the substantial cost and effort required for manual data collection. Using this technique, we build HowToDIV, a large-scale dataset containing 507 conversations, 6636 question-answer pairs and 24 hours of videoclips across diverse tasks in cooking, mechanics, and planting. Each session includes multi-turn conversation where an expert teaches a novice user how to perform a task step by step, while observing user's surrounding through a camera and microphone equipped wearable device. We establish the baseline benchmark performance on HowToDIV dataset through Gemma-3 model, for future research on this new task of dialogues for procedural-task assistance. Our dataset and code are publicly available at our project page: https://github.com/google/howtodiv. View details
    Preview abstract This paper discusses the migration of data orchestration workflows from a legacy tool like Autosys to a modern, cloud - based solution, Google Cloud Composer. It explores the transition from traditional job scheduling to Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) - based workflows using Apache Airflow, culminating in the deployment and management of these workflows in Cloud Composer. The benefits and challenges of this migration are examined, highlighting the advantages of scalability, flexibility, and cloud integration offered by Cloud Composer. View details
    Google's Approach for Secure AI Agents
    Santiago (Sal) Díaz
    Kara Olive
    Google (2025)
    Preview abstract As part of Google's ongoing efforts to define best practices for secure AI systems, we’re sharing our aspirational framework for secure AI agents. We advocate for a hybrid, defense-in-depth strategy that combines the strengths of traditional, deterministic security controls with dynamic, reasoning-based defenses. This approach is grounded in three core principles: agents must have well-defined human controllers, their powers must be carefully limited, and their actions and planning must be observable. This paper reflects our current thinking and the direction of our efforts as we work towards ensuring that AI agents can be powerful, useful, and secure by default. View details
    Preview abstract Measuring software development can help drive impactful change. However, it’s a complex task, and getting started can be daunting as it involves understanding what you should measure, and determining what you can measure. This article provides a guide to selecting a framework that aligns with organizational measurement strategy. View details
    ExfilState: Automated Discovery of Timer-Free Cache Side Channels on ARM CPUs
    Fabian Thomas
    Michael Torres
    Michael Schwarz
    ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) (2025) (to appear)
    Preview
    Preview abstract Specific quantum algorithms exist to—in theory— break elliptic curve cryptographic protocols. Implementing these algorithms requires designing quantum circuits that perform elliptic curve arithmetic. To accurately judge a cryptographic protocol’s resistance against future quantum computers, researchers figure out minimal resource-count circuits for performing these operations while still being correct. To assure the correctness of a circuit, it is integral to restore all ancilla qubits used to their original states. Failure to do so could result in decoherence of the computation’s final result. Through rigorous classical simulation and unit testing, I surfaced four inconsistencies in the state-ofthe-art quantum circuit for elliptic curve point addition where the circuit diagram states the qubits are returned in the original (|0⟩) state, but the intermediate values are not uncomputed. I provide fixes to the circuit without increasing the leading-order gate cost. View details
    Preview abstract Modern deep learning algorithms use variations of gradient descent as their main learning methods. Gradient descent can be understood as the simplest Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) solver; namely, the Euler method applied to the gradient flow differential equation. Since Euler, many ODE solvers have been devised that follow the gradient flow equation more precisely and more stably. Runge-Kutta (RK) methods provide a family of very powerful explicit and implicit high-order ODE solvers. However, these higher-order solvers have not found wide application in deep learning so far. In this work, we evaluate the performance of higher-order RK solvers when applied in deep learning, study their limitations, and propose ways to overcome these drawbacks. In particular, we explore how to improve their performance by naturally incorporating key ingredients of modern neural network optimizers such as preconditioning, adaptive learning rates, and momentum. View details
    Preview abstract Intuitively, the more complex a software system is, the harder it is to maintain. Statistically, it is not clear which complexity measures correlate with maintenance effort; in fact, it is not even clear how to objectively measure maintenance burden, so that developers’ sentiment and intuition can be supported by numbers. Without effective complexity and maintenance measures, it remains difficult to objectively monitor maintenance, control complexity, or justify refactoring. In this paper, we report a large-scale study of 1200+ projects written in C++ and Java from Google LLC. In this study, we collected three categories of measures: (1) architectural complexity, measured using propagation cost (PC), decoupling level (DL), and structural anti-patterns; (2) maintenance activity, measured using the number of changes, lines of code (LOC) written, and active coding time (ACT) spent on feature-addition vs. bug-fixing, and (3) developer sentiment on complexity and productivity, collected from 7200 survey responses. We statistically analysed the correlations among these measures and obtained significant evidence of the following findings: 1) the more complex the architecture is (higher propagation cost, more instances of anti-patterns), the more LOC is spent on bug-fixing, rather than adding new features; 2) developers who commit more changes for features, spend more lines of code on features, or spend more time on features also feel that they are less hindered by technical debt and complexity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first large-scale empirical study establishing the statistical correlation among architectural complexity, maintenance activity, and developer sentiment. The implication is that, instead of solely relying upon developer sentiment and intuitions to detect degraded structure or increased burden to evolve, it is possible to objectively and continuously measure and monitor architectural complexity and maintenance difficulty, increasing feature delivery efficiency by reducing architectural complexity and anti-patterns. View details
    RemapRoute: Local Remapping of Internet Path Changes
    renata cruz teixeira
    italo cunha
    Elverton Fazzion
    Darryl Veitch
    2025
    Preview abstract Several systems rely on traceroute to track a large number of Internet paths as they change over time. Monitoring systems perform this task by remapping paths periodically or whenever a change is detected. This paper shows that such complete remapping is inefficient, because most path changes are localized to a few hops of a path. We develop RemapRoute, a tool to remap a path locally given the previously known path and a change point. RemapRoute sends targeted probes to locate and remap the often few hops that have changed. Our evaluation with trace-driven simulations and in a real deployment shows that local remapping reduces the average number of probes issued during remapping by 63% and 79%, respectively, when compared with complete remapping. At the same time, our results show that local remapping has little impact on the accuracy of inferred paths. View details
    DroidCCT: Cryptographic Compliance Test via Trillion-Scale Measurement
    Rémi Audebert
    Pedro Barbosa
    Borbala Benko
    Alex (Mac) Mihai
    László Siroki
    Catherine Vlasov
    Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) (2025) (to appear)
    Preview