Google just unveiled 2 major smart home AI updates - and Nest users will be excited

The Google smart home is getting one of its biggest upgrades in years. In addition to launching a new Google TV Streamer and Nest Learning Thermostat, the company is bringing Gemini, its set of artificial intelligence (AI) large language models (LLMs), to its smart home experience with new AI-generated summaries, automations, and a smarter Google Assistant.

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Google Nest security cameras can detect general motion, people, and animals. Google recently updated its cameras with garage door detection through the Nest Aware subscription. This newer feature lets you monitor whether your garage door was left open or not using AI image detection.

Gemini-powered Nest surveillance

Now, Google is adding Gemini to the smart home Nest cameras in the Google Home app, leveraging image recognition to generate descriptions of what the camera captures. 

Google shared an example of a camera looking into a backyard where kids are jumping into a swimming pool. The description read, "Three children jumping into a swimming pool, chasing after a pool toy. The sun shines brightly, casting long shadows," instead of a simple, "motion detected."

This approach reduces false alerts and provides rich descriptions of captured information. I asked Google if the feature would work with Nest Aware's person identification tech, which recognizes previously identified people to give you more specific alerts. Google said this option isn't available yet, but the company is working on it.

Nest cameras' Gemini-powered alerts let you create automations based on what is detected in the image. For example, you can ask Google Assistant if your kids left their bikes on the driveway and then tell the assistant to remind them to bring their bikes into the garage when they arrive from school. Gemini will set an automation through a camera to tell whoever arrives between 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm to bring their bikes into the garage. 

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Thanks to Gemini, you can also search your activity for specific events, like asking, "When did the kids go into the pool?" The AI assistant can reference a camera overlooking a pool to get the time when people went in.

Of course, these features will be even more helpful if Google combines them with Nest Aware's people identification feature. You could then ask, for example, "When did X person bring in the groceries?" or give different visitors custom greetings or messages through the video doorbell.

A more powerful smart home Assistant

Companies have used generative AI for different use cases in work environments, but the smart home hasn't seen as many AI-enabled updates as enthusiasts would like. Now, Google has announced that a Gemini-powered Google Assistant is coming to the smart home.

Google says the updated Google Assistant matches "the original vision for a virtual assistant." Google Assistant currently works like Amazon Alexa and Apple's Siri, with natural language processing technology that creates a response to user queries, but is otherwise limited, as it cannot maintain context enough to respond to follow-up questions, for example.

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The updated Google Assistant will understand better and speak more naturally than ever before. The technology will handle follow-up questions, maintaining conversational context for more natural and fluid interactions. These updates are coming soon to existing Nest smart speakers and displays.