Google Home to Get AI-Powered Gemini Intelligence Features

Google Assistant is set to receive a significant upgrade on Nest smart speakers and displays. Nest cameras will soon gain the ability to interpret and describe video footage, thanks to a powerful infusion of AI technology into Google Home.

AI Enhancements for Smart Home

Generative AI holds great potential to simplify and enhance smart home experiences. Following Amazon's announcement of a smarter Alexa, Google has revealed its plans for a more advanced Google Assistant. Ahead of its fall hardware event, Google announced three new Gemini intelligence-powered features for its Google Home platform: camera intelligence that generates descriptive captions for Nest camera footage, natural language input for creating Google Home routines, and a smarter Google Assistant with a new voice.

Subscription and Beta Testing

Most of these features, except for the new voice, will be available through Google’s Nest Aware subscription, starting at $8 a month ($80 a year). The features will first launch in Google’s Public Preview beta program for a limited number of Nest Aware subscribers and will expand to more users next year.

Future of Google Home

“This sets the path for the next era of Google Home,” said Anish Kattukaran, Google Home’s head of product. The integration of AI into Google Home aims to address long-standing issues users face with aging smart displays and the transition from the Nest app to the Google Home app.

Upcoming Hardware and Enhancements

Google recently launched the Google TV Streamer 4K, a Google Home hub, and a new Nest Learning Thermostat. Combined with the promise of a smarter Google Assistant, these updates signal positive changes for Google Home users.

Gemini Intelligence Integration

Google is leveraging Gemini intelligence on Nest cameras to provide detailed descriptions of what the camera captures. Instead of simply receiving an alert for a person or package and then having to watch the video to see what happened, Google Home will provide a detailed description of what the camera observed. These AI models will learn and train on your data in the cloud, specifically for your home, becoming smarter over time to better understand and interpret activities around your home. This feature allows for smarter home automation, such as turning on sprinklers if a camera detects a dog digging in the garden. Users can also use text to search through footage in the Google Home activity tab, making it easier to find specific events.

Natural Language Routines

A new “Help me create” feature in the Google Home app (it doesn’t work through Nest speakers) lets users describe desired actions, such as “lock the doors and turn off the lights at bedtime,” to create routines automatically. This feature works via text or speech input in the Home app and includes all current starters, conditions, and actions, plus access to any device connected to Google Home, including Matter devices.

Improved Google Assistant Core Experiences

Google is enhancing the core experiences of its Google Assistant, such as playing music and setting timers, on all current Nest smart speakers and displays. The Assistant is also getting new voices with different styles, tones, and accents, making it sound more natural and capable of handling conversational nuances like pauses and follow-up questions.

Privacy and Personalization

Kattukaran emphasized that the new capabilities will run “in the cloud, for your home,” in line with Google’s privacy principles. The goal is for the AI models to understand your home setup and devices, gradually becoming smarter over time while maintaining high accuracy.

The Vision for a Helpful Digital Assistant

Google aims to push the digital voice assistant closer to the vision of a genuinely helpful assistant. “When we started out with that first-gen assistant, the promise was The Jetsons; the vision was an ultra-helpful assistant that could proactively help you figure things out,” said Kattukaran. The advancements in large language models (LLMs) have raised the technological ceiling, bringing us closer to this vision.

Industry Competition and Future Outlook

As Google, Amazon, and Apple race toward creating intelligent, context-aware assistants for our homes, the future of smart home technology looks promising. It will be fascinating to see how these developments unfold.