Google’s Made by Google event this week was primarily all about the company’s new Pixel and Pixel 8 Pro phones, which include several upgrades, including new camera capabilities and AI upgrades. However, the company also made an under-the-radar announcement about bringing Bard’s generative AI to Google Home and Assistant.
The company is planning to bring some new AI capabilities to Google Home next year to make smart homes more intuitive and helpful, says Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of devices and services at Google, who spoke at the event.
Using generative AI capabilities, users will be able to see a streamlined view of recent activity, with a quick and easy summary, Osterloh says.
For example, users wondering about packages being delivered can ask about their home in their natural language and quickly find the clip they’re looking for from their Nest doorbell video history. Users can take action on these insights by typing a follow-up query, and the Home app will generate a list of suggested automations.
However, Osterloh calls these features “experimental” and for subscribers only, suggesting that these advanced AI capabilities won’t be free. They will be rolling out next year.
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Although not specifically related to Google’s smart home ecosystem, the company also said it is bringing its generative AI tool Bard to Assistant, essentially infusing advanced AI into its intelligent assistant that is often the center of smart homes using Google controls.
According to Google, this combines Bard’s generative and reasoning capabilities with Assistant’s personalized help.
“You can interact with it through text, voice or images — and it can even help take actions for you,” writes Sissi Hsiao, vice president and general manager, of Google Assistant and Bard, in a blog.
Assistant with Bard is being billed as a “more personalized helper” that will be integrated with popular Google services like Gmail and Docs. However, the company did not specifically mention how this will integrate with Google Home.
That may be because Assistant with Bard is “still an early experiment,” Hsiao writes. It will be rolling out to testers first to get their feedback before general availability.
These announcements come shortly after Amazon announced big upgrades to its own AI, Alexa, including a new large language model (LLM) designed to make controlling smart home systems easier, more intuitive and more conversational. The recent CEDIA Expo 2023 also saw announcements from professional smart home manufacturer Savant saying they have incorporated Siri’s natural language processing capabilities into its own ecosystem.
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