At its recent Made By Google event on Tuesday, Google unveiled several new Pixel devices and took the opportunity to highlight significant advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) features for its Gemini chatbot. The most notable of these updates was the introduction of “Gemini Live”, which adds voice capabilities to the chatbot, allowing users to engage in conversational exchanges without the need to type or read responses. This feature closely resembles ChatGPT’s advanced Voice Mode, which was recently made available to some paid subscribers.
Gemini Live Unveiled by Google
Google introduced Gemini Live as a mobile conversational tool, enabling the chatbot to engage in natural, free-flowing conversations with users. This includes voice modulations and emotional nuances, making the AI’s responses almost human-like. The feature offers users 10 distinct voices to choose from, each varying in energy level, pitch, and tone.
In a blog post, Google emphasized that Gemini Live provides a hands-free experience, allowing the AI to listen and respond even when the device is locked or the app is running in the background. Google likened the experience to being on a regular phone call.
The new mode enables users to delve deeper into topics, offering better context or follow-up questions to improve the quality of responses. Users can interrupt the AI mid-response to add more information or pause the conversation to resume later.
Initially announced at Google I/O, Gemini Live is similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode. Interestingly, OpenAI introduced its voice feature just one day before Google’s event. However, Google’s version offers more voice options and supports a larger context window (one million tokens, with developers having access to up to two million tokens), potentially giving it an advantage. It’s still early days, though, and the impact of these features will become clearer as they are more widely adopted.
Google has begun rolling out Gemini Live to Gemini Advanced subscribers on Android devices. Initially, the feature will only be available in English, but the company plans to expand its availability to more languages and introduce it to iOS in the coming weeks. The Gemini Advanced subscription is included in the Google One AI Premium plan, which costs Rs. 1,950 per month.
