What is Gemini Live and how do you use it?
Later this year, Google will integrate Gemini Live with Project Astracomputer vision technology it introduced developer conference in may. This will allow you to use your phone’s camera app and, in real time, ask Gemini about objects you’re seeing in the real world. Imagine you come across a concert poster and ask it to save the date to your calendar and set a reminder to buy tickets.
Talk to me
Our experience with voice assistants has been largely transactional so when I chatted with Gemini Live, I found it a little awkward to start a conversation with the bot. It’s a big step up from asking Google Assistant or Alexa to report the weather, open the blinds, or ask if your dog can eat celery. You can follow up here and there, but it’s not built around the flow of the conversation the way Gemini Live is.
Hsiao told me that she likes to use Gemini Live in the car when driving home after work. She started a conversation about the Paris Olympics and Celine Dion singing at the opening ceremony. “Can you tell me a little about the song she sang?” Hsiao asked. The AI responded with the origin of the song, who wrote it, and what it meant, and after a bit of back and forth, Hsiao discovered that Celine Dion could sing in Chinese.
“I was amazed,” she said. “But that just gives you an example of how you can figure things out; it’s an interaction with technology that people couldn’t have before with curiosity and discovery through conversation. This is just the beginning of where we’re going with Gemini.”
In my demo, I asked Gemini what I should have for dinner. It asked if I wanted something light and refreshing or something hearty. We went back and forth, and when Gemini suggested shrimp, I lied and said I was allergic to shrimp, and then it suggested salmon. I said I don’t eat salmon. “You could always grill some chicken breasts and toss them into a salad with grilled salad and a light vinegar dressing.” I asked for a recipe, and it started giving me step-by-step instructions. I interrupted it, but I could go back to the Gemini app to find the recipe later.
