Google’s New AI Operating System LEAKED… AluminiumOS!

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]Today, we're looking at something that honestly just feels like it came out of nowhere, Aluminum OS. It supposedly just leaked from Google IO 2026, and if the early information is real, this is Google pushing Android in a direction that we haven't really seen before. So far from what we know, Aluminum OS is built on top of Android 17, which has just been announced. But it's been heavily modified into a more desktop style AI first operating system. It's also apparently what powers Google's new Google Books, which run ARM chips instead of the, you know, traditional Chromebook that uses an x86 chip. Now, that detail is important because it changes how we even get Aluminum OS to run in the first place. So, here's the problem right away. The leaked IMG file doesn't behave like a normal virtual machine image. So, if you try running it in a traditional x86 virtualizer like VMware or VirtualBox, it will not work because it's built for the ARM architecture. That means we need to use UTM, which supports ARM emulation properly through QEMU. This is basically the only realistic way to get a look at it without real hardware. So, let's check it out.

[00:01:04]Now, to get this working, we need a software called UTM, and you can easily download that from mac.getutm.app.

[00:01:11]I'll leave that in the description below. But with that, just get UTM installed, and you should be good to go.

[00:01:16]Now, once you get that installed, you will also want to get the IMG that I've got in the description below. This is the leaked image for Aluminum OS. So, once you have that file installed, you can't just drag and drop it into UTM. We need a bootloader in order to actually boot the IMG file. So, for this, we can use a pre-made LineageOS UTM virtual machine that has everything we already need set up for us. I'll also have this in the description below. Once you have this open, go to the releases tab, and then go ahead and download this. It is a 1 GB zip file, so it will take a few minutes to install. So, let's go ahead and get that downloaded here. Another thing to note is that UTM is unfortunately macOS only. Now, here is one important thing to note.

[00:01:53]Unfortunately, UTM is exclusive to macOS only, meaning you can't get this working on Windows. Unless there is a way to get QEMU arm virtualization running on Windows, just stick to Mac OS for this.

[00:02:05]All right, now that you've got that zip file installed, you'll want to go ahead and decompress it. So, I'm going to just double click this here, and it should open up the archive utility. Okay, and we've got this UTM file here. So, now that we've got this UTM file, we can double click it, and it should just open up UTM. Okay, and now we can set up UTM for the IMG file that I've got on my desktop here. So, we have this virtual machine already pre-made for you. We just got to configure this now. So, you want to go to edit selected VM, and then just go down, and you want to import the IMG file for Aluminum OS that we've got here. So, I'll press new, import. All right, and then I'll drag this into finder, and it should locate it. There it is. And then we can press open. And that's pretty much it for UTM. We can press save, and then we can run the virtual machine from here. All right, let's go ahead and get this opened up.

[00:02:47]And now we should have entered GRUB from here. Now, do not enter Lineage OS.

[00:02:51]We're actually going to want to go down to the advanced options, and then we're going to go down to the last option here. We're going to want to boot the GSI image. But before we actually boot into it, we need to edit the command for this. So, if you're familiar with GRUB, you'll know to press E on this. And now we've entered the editor for the boot arguments here. Now, here's the important part. This is the key part to get this image working. We need to add a parameter here called androidboot.selinux=permissive to the end, so just right at the end of this. And the reason we do this is just to prevent the violations from being blocked when we boot this thing up. And it's as simple as that. So, we can press control X, and we can let this thing boot. Okay, and if everything worked correctly, we should just see the system initialize and drop us into this new interface. And this is pretty much where we can see where Google's been working on. And now, starting off, you may have noticed that we can't actually see the cursor. You'll need to press capture input devices, and with this, we can see our cursor. All right, so starting things off, we are going to use this for personal usage, so let's press the personal button. And uh let me just say that this setup screen is a lot more better than the setup screen that you'd usually use on Chrome OS. This definitely looks way more better. This device may be unsafe. We noticed some unusual activity on this device, and your data could be at risk if you continue setup. I've no idea why it's saying that, but uh let's just continue the setup. All right, we can use English. We're in the United States. Set up using another device. This is actually a pretty cool feature, so you can copy all your Google data from a Pixel device or even an iPhone or an iPad, and it can get all that data on your Google book. I'm going to just skip this though. I'm not going to go through that hassle. Some device information that's needed for setup will be sent to Google. Oh, that'll be interesting.

[00:04:30]They'll be like, "Who's got access to a Google book right now?" I'm going to set this up for myself, and we should be able to log in to our Google account from here. And I'm going to go ahead and quickly just do that. Now, I would definitely not use your own personal Google account on this because I don't know, they might shut down your account for having access to this image very early. So, just keep that in mind. All right, I'm going to confirm my name. So, we've got these new Google profile pictures. Pretty nice. I honestly really do like the grain that all of these profile pictures have on them. I'm going to just stick with this one. All right, and from here we can set a PIN. I'm going to quickly just put in a PIN here.

[00:05:03]And nope, don't want to copy any apps or data. I'll do that later. Yep, I'm not doing that later. And we can press accept. Okay, and here is the cherry on top. Meet Gemini, your personal AI assistant. Press and hold power or go hands-free with your voice. So, I'm assuming the Google book has um a AI button, I'm assuming, on its side that lets you use Gemini. Now, I would assume that Gemini runs completely on the device using some sort of neural acceleration or something that the arm chips would have. Go hands-free with Hey Google. Yeah, sure, let's turn that on.

[00:05:37]Okay, perfect, and we're all done. So, we can press get started, and we should straight into the operating system.

[00:05:44]Okay, I think I've spotted a glitch.

[00:05:47]For some reason, shelf shows up on the login screen, which I guess is pretty funny.

[00:05:52]Now, honestly, after seeing all of this, it's pretty clear Google is trying to completely change what Android actually is. Google I/O 2026 has already been packed with announcements, but Aluminum OS and these new Google Books devices feel like the biggest shift out of everything shown so far. Google spent years pushing Chromebooks as lightweight web machines, but now it feels like they're moving towards something way more ambitious, an AI-focused operating system built directly on Android itself.

[00:06:20]Between Gemini intelligence being integrated everywhere, Android getting more desktop-style functionality, and now dedicated ARM laptops designed around this new software, it genuinely feels like we're watching the start of a new era for Google's ecosystem. Now, I don't mean to be an AI glazer or anything like that because, to be honest, I don't really use AI a lot. The use of AI is nowhere near anywhere near my actual workflow. But But I personally believe that if AI is used for good, if it's not being intrusive, if it's not getting in the way of what a user wants to do, I think this is definitely going to be an exciting new era for Google's ecosystem. I mean, even in this leaked state, Aluminum OS does seem pretty solid than I expected. And honestly, it's kind of weird seeing Android being stretched this far beyond phones and tablets. I mean, sure, if you've watched my last video, you'll know Android x86 does exist, but this is a whole new thing. However, there still are a lot of unanswered questions about how powerful it will actually be or what apps it will support and whether Google Books can compete with traditional laptops. But one thing's obvious, Google is betting heavily on AI and ARM for the future.

[00:07:27]And if this leak is anything close to what gets officially revealed, I think Google I/O 2026 might end up being remembered as one of the most important turning points for Android in years.

[00:07:37]That's just my take though. Let me know what you guys think about it in the description below. But that's pretty much it. So, if you like what you saw, then definitely consider liking the video and subscribing. Please also feel free to join the Discord server, too.

[00:07:48]Link in the description below. And so, I'll see you guys in my next video.

[00:07:52]Bye-bye.