A year after ChatGPT, Google joins the party: At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Google revealed the future of conversational AI with Gemini Live, the development that will turn your smartphone into an interactive personal assistant capable of seeing and understanding the world around you in real time.
About a year ago, Google first introduced "Project Astra," a demonstration of AI that could process live video and answer questions in real time. Now, this development is coming to life with Gemini Live, which will be available to Android users at the end of March.
Until now, Gemini could process text, images, and various types of documents. With Gemini Live, it will gain the new ability to process live video and screen sharing. In simple terms, you’ll be able to open your phone’s camera and show Gemini Live anything, and it will be able to answer questions and provide relevant information in real time. You can also share your screen and ask Gemini Live for help with various tasks, like online shopping or solving technical problems.
In the demo video, the user scanned their phone around the room, and Gemini Live provided information about various objects, like computer code, speakers, and a network diagram. It also remembered where the user had placed their glasses earlier in the video. Google promises that Gemini Live will be a personal assistant that can help with a wide range of tasks. For example, you could use it to get information about new places you're visiting, get help picking clothes, or learn new things while watching a tutorial video.
Gemini Live with video capabilities will arrive in the Gemini app for Android at the end of March and will only be available to subscribers of the AI Premium plan, which costs $20 per month. This subscription gives access to Gemini’s advanced models.
Live video processing is a complex and resource-intensive task. Google is aware that running Gemini Live will require much more processing power than processing text or images. Google may face significant financial losses in the early stages, but it believes this new development will increase the use of Gemini and help it compete with OpenAI and other companies in the AI field.
Despite Google’s presence in the mobile market, the use of Gemini is still significantly lower than that of OpenAI’s AI tools, which have already been providing the "seeing eye" service of ChatGPT for about a year.
