Hands On With Gemini AI Features and Gemini Live video [CNET]

Google has a range of new features coming to Gemini that have the potential to change how you use your phone. See a demo of Gemini Live in action.

Google showed off a range of Gemini A I features at its made by Google event and some of them actually have the potential to change how you use your phone. Hi, I’m Alexie. Welcome to your weekly dose of All things Mobile. A special edition brought to you live from made by Google where I’ve got hands on with all of the different pixel devices, but they were kind of overshadowed by Gemini and a bunch of the different announcements that we heard here. I got to try out a couple of different Gemini demos here at the event and some of them were actually really impressive. The one that I was most intrigued by and most impressed by was Gemini Live, which is Google’s answer to chat G BT S advanced voice module. Try making some homemade lava lamps with oil, water and food coloring. You can have some pretty in depth conversation with Gemini Live. You can do things like interrupt us in the middle of your conversation. You can get it to summarize things or you know, basically explain things to you in a more simple manner and I found it was actually a really natural experience overall. So I’m gonna do a run through Live of Gemini Live. I haven’t had this conversation before. So let’s see what happens. So I’m just gonna tap this icon down here. Hi, Gemini. I’m looking to run my first marathon and I really don’t know where to start. What should I do? That’s an awesome goal. Training for a marathon is a huge commitment. So let’s get you set up for success first. Let’s figure out what kind of actually you have with running. I’m so sorry. I actually meant to say half marathon. I don’t think I’m ready for a full marathon yet. Can you give me advice about that? No worries at all. Half marathons are still a fantastic challenge and a great way to ease into longer distances. Maybe. Think about a race date sometime in September or October. That’ll give you a better shot at reaching your goal. Ok, let’s say October. But can you give me like the plan on how I should do that? Like talk to me like I’m five years old and explain to me really simply how I should get started. Ok. Here’s the deal. Think of training like building a really strong house. You can’t build a whole house in one day, right? You gotta start with a solid foundation. So for the first month or so, it’s all about getting back into the swing of running when you’re starting out on your half marathon journey. It’s best to find a pair of running shoes that offer good support and cushioning all. Oh, no, I don’t wanna do a half marathon. I think that’s too vicious. I’m sorry, I, I think I’m just gonna go back and start from scratch. Just, uh, let’s, let’s start over, let’s try something else. Say, for example, I wanted to get a pet at home and I am really looking between, uh, a dog cat and a toucan, which one should I get? Uh especially because I want something super low maintenance, but also something that can kind of have a conversation with. It. Sounds like you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the idea of a half marathon. Let’s show that idea for now. Maybe revisit it further down the road when you feel more ready. In the meantime, let’s talk about this pet idea. It’s important to pick a pet that fits your lifestyle. I thought Gemini live was actually really quite responsive and fairly natural. I did like the way it changed its intonation at parts when I was answering different things that I was throwing at it and it kind of changed tact as soon as I interrupted it in the middle of a conversation. But that’s the thing. Interrupting to me, feels quite unnatural in a conversation. So having to do that with an assistant. Well, you don’t have to do it, but that being a feature built in is just a little bit strange. That’s something I’m definitely gonna have to get used. So, going forward and I don’t know about you, but it actually does sound pretty human. I don’t think I could be fooled by this having the sort of the sounds and the tones of a human just yet, but it’s well on its way, try to remember that even Venus people are just regular folks. So Gemini Live is actually gonna be coming to a range of android devices as long as you have a device capable of running Gemini Advanced and I OS support is coming later at the moment. It is voice only, but you you can see that transcript of your conversation after the fact and the other elements, multimodal elements like video and photo input. For example, those are coming sometime later on down the track. Some of the other demos that I tried included Gemini connected apps. So this is basically using Gemini to talk across a whole range of the Google suite of apps, anything from gmail to keep to calendar. So you can do again, conversational things like asking Gemini to find an email where you talk to a friend about a particular subject and then potentially getting all of those locations that were in that email and putting them on a map. I feel like connected apps is actually pretty helpful and it has the potential to change how I use my phone. However, as long as you’re firmly ensconced in Google’s own apps because it doesn’t yet work with third party apps. So, those are some quick impressions of the Gemini features here at made by Google. Stay Tuned. Cos we have lots more coverage coming your way. Thanks for watching and I’ll catch you next time. See ya.