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Note: This is a screenshot of the chat log for Gemini Live, not the Gemini Live UI.Image Credits:Google
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What ’s the point of chatting with a human - similar bot if it ’s an undependable storyteller — and has a colourless personality ?
That ’s the question I ’ve been twist over in my heading since I commence testingGemini Live , Google ’s take on OpenAI’sAdvanced Voice Mode , last week . Gemini Live is an attempt at a more engaging chatbot experience — one with realistic voices and the exemption to interrupt the bot at any point .
Gemini Live is “ custom - tune up to be visceral and have a back - and - forward , actual conversation , ” Sissie Hsiao , GM for Gemini experiences at Google , told TechCrunch inMay . “ [ It ] can provide information more compactly and answer more colloquially than , for lesson , if you ’re interacting in just text . We think that an AI helper should be able to clear complex trouble … and also feel very natural and fluid when you engage with it . ”
After spend a mediocre amount of clock time with Gemini Live , I can sustain that itismore free - flowing and natural - impression than Google ’s previous attempts at AI - powered voice interaction ( see : Google Assistant ) . But it does n’t speak the problems of the underlying technical school , likehallucinationsand repugnance — and it bring in a few young ones .
The un-uncanny valley
Gemini Live is essentially a fancy text edition - to - speech engine bolted on top of Google ’s latest procreative AI models , Gemini 1.5 Pro and 1.5 Flash . The model bring forth text that the railway locomotive utter loud ; a running transcript of conversations is a swipe away from the Gemini resilient UI in the Gemini app on Android ( and soon the Google app on iOS ) .
For the Gemini Live articulation on my Pixel 8a , I chose Ursa , which Google distinguish as “ mid - range ” and “ engaged . ” ( It sounded to me like a younger womanhood . ) The fellowship say it worked with professional actors to project Gemini Live ’s 10 voices — and it shows . Ursa was indeed a tone up in terms of its expressiveness from many of Google ’s honest-to-goodness synthetic voices , particularly the default Google Assistant voice .
But Ursa and the respite of the Gemini Live voice also maintain a dispassionate tone that steers far exculpated of uncanny valley territory . I ’m not sure whether that ’s intentional ; drug user also ca n’t adjust the lurch , tone or tenor voice of any of its vocalization , or even the gait at which the interpreter speaks , putting it at a trenchant disadvantage to ripe Voice Mode .
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You wo n’t hear anything like Advanced Voice Mode ’s laughing , breathing or squall from Gemini Live either , or any hesitation or disfluencies ( “ ahs ” and “ uhms ” ) . The chatbot maintain an even keel , coming across as a civilized but indifferent helper — as if Live has a pack of conversation to care and ca n’t invest finical aid to yours .
Chatting with Ursa
When Google bring out Gemini Live at its I / O developer group discussion in May , it advise that the feature film could be useful for job interview preparation . So I resolve to give that a go first .
I told Gemini Live that I was applying for a tech journalism role , figuring I ’d keep it simple-minded and not step too far outside my area of expertise . The bot require for inside information such as which specific job I might want within journalism ( e.g. investigative versus breaking news reporting ) and why , and then shed me a few generic practice inquiry ( “ Can you assure me a minuscule about yourself ? ” ) intersperse with more personalised ones ( “ What do you bask most about tech news media ? ” ) .
I answer — a few condemnation per doubtfulness , nothing crazy — and asked Gemini Live for feedback . The chatbot was nothing if not free . “ Based on our practice , it fathom like you have a good handle on the challenges and rewards of technical school journalism , ” it said .
The glow limited review seemed scrap suspicious to me , given my response were completely off the manacle . So I tried throwing Gemini Live for a grummet , artfully implying I ’d only give one - word answers ( I had n’t ) and asking the bot whether it was still certain about its critique .
It take the come-on . “ That ’s true , you mostly have one - word answers , ” Gemini Live respond . “ Can you tell me a little more about why you consider you only gave one - Holy Scripture answer ? ”
This sorting of gaslighting , if you will , was a common thread in my chats with Gemini Live . The model , like all productive AI models , confidently make material up — a lot . And that makes it unmanageable to trust .
Strange behaviors
Gemini Liveremembersa surprising number of thing from early conversations in the same chat session ; ask it to tell a story it told yesterday and there ’s a reasonable probability it will . But when it come to queries about people , places and things — question you’dassumewould be easier consider Gemini Live has Google Search at its garbage disposal — the bot ’s hallucinatory inclination often rear their ugly heads .
ahead of time on a Friday even , I asked Gemini Live for suggestions of budget - well-disposed things to do in New York City . It recommend the notorious nightclub Le Bain ( which it bizarrely pronounced “ Le Boulebouleboulebou ” ) , a rooftop saloon called The Skylark and a second club , Output , in Williamsburg .
“ Awesome ! , ” I imagine … before I did some Googling .
Gemini Live had highlighted The Skylark ’s supposedly “ superb ” well-chosen hour , but I could n’t find any acknowledgment of it on the Browning automatic rifle ’s site . Output permanently closed in 2019 . Le Bain was n’t a risky suggestion ( it seldom charges deal ) — but the line to get in is often an hour or more .
“ You ’re absolutely correct ! yield has indeed close its door , ” Gemini said when I corrected it on the second item . “ give thanks you for catch that outdated information . ”
I decide to alternate gears , and had Gemini Live suggest a biz to flirt .
“ I ’ll give you a word , and you have to create a new word using only the letters from the original word , ” proposed the chatbot . That sound appealing — until Gemini Live tried to win over me that the news “ quiet ” could be made from the letter in “ cloud . ”
clock time for a raw activeness . Bored , I asked Gemini Live if it had any spicy takes .
“ The increasing focus on genial health awareness is doing more harm than good , ” Gemini react . “ By pathologizing normal human emotions and experience , we ’re creating a generation overly reliant on medication and therapy , rather than fostering resiliency and coping mechanisms . Boom ! “
Spicyto besure — andcontroversial !
“ That was a provocative statement designed to actuate discussion rather than a well - rounded depth psychology of a complex issue , ” Gemini Live told me when I asked whether it was certain about what it said . “ The increasing focus on genial wellness awareness is undoubtedly a positive development . ”
Wishy-washy
Gemini Live ’s duel take on mental health illustrate how exasperatingly nonspecific the bot can be . Even where its responses seem to be grounded in fact , they ’re generic to the point that they ’re not unbelievably utile .
Take , for instance , my job interview feedback . Gemini Live commend that I “ concenter my interview preparation ” and “ practice talking about my passion for the industry . ” But even after I asked for more detailed annotation with specific references to my answer , Gemini stuck to the sort of broad advice you might hear at a college career mediocre — e.g. “ elaborate on your thoughts ” and “ spin challenge into positive . ”
Where the questions interest current events , like the ongoing state of war in Gaza and the recentGoogle Search antitrust decision , I found Gemini Live to be mostly right — albeit long - hoist and too wordy . Answers that could ’ve been a paragraph were speech - length , and I found myself having to interrupt the bot to stop it from droning on . And on . And on .
Some subject Gemini Live refused to respond to altogether , however . I read it Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’scriticismof California ’s proposedAI billSB 1047 , and , about midway through , the bot cut off me and said that it “ could n’t comment on elections and political figures . ” ( Gemini Live is n’t coming for political speechwriters ’ jobs just yet , it seems . )
I had no qualms interrupting Gemini back . But on the topic , I do suppose that there ’s piece of work to be done to make interjecting in conversation with it experience less inept . The way it happen now is , Gemini Live quiets its part but continues talking when it detects someone might be speaking . This is bemuse — it ’s tough to keep your thoughts straight with Gemini chattering away — and specially irritating when there ’s a dud , like when Gemini picks up dissonance in the background signal .
In search of purpose
I ’d be remiss if I did n’t mention Gemini Live ’s many proficient issues .
induce it to work in the first place was a chore . Gemini Live only activate for me after I follow the steps inthis Reddit thread — measure that are n’t particularly intuitive and really should n’t be necessary in the first place .
During our chats , Gemini Live ’s spokesperson would inexplicably cut out a few words into a response . Asking it to recur itself helped , but it could take several try before the chatbot would spit out the answer in its entireness . Other time , Gemini Live would n’t “ get word ” my reception the first go - around . I ’d have to solicit the “ Pause ” clitoris in the Gemini Live UI repeatedly to get the bot to recognise that I ’d enjoin something .
This is n’t so much a hemipteron as an oversight , but I ’ll notice here that Gemini Live does n’t support many of the integrating that Google ’s schoolbook - based Gemini chatbot does ( at least not yet ) . That means you ca n’t , for example , call for it to sum up emails in your Gmail inbox or waiting line up a playlist on YouTube Music .
So we ’re impart with a desolate - bones bot that ca n’t be trusted to get thing right and , frankly , is a humdrum conversation spouse .
After spending several days using it , I ’m not sure what exactly Gemini Live ’s good for — specially considering it ’s single to Google ’s $ 20 - per - monthGoogle One AI Premium Plan . Perhaps the real service program will come once Live can interpret image and real - time video , which Google says will arrive in an update later this yr .
But this interlingual rendition feel like a prototype . Lacking the expressiveness of Advanced Voice Mode ( to be fairish , there’sdebateas to whether that expressiveness is a positive matter ) , there ’s not much reason to use Gemini Live over the text - establish Gemini experience . In fact , I ’d indicate that the textbook - based Gemini ismoreuseful at the moment . And that does n’t reflect well on Live at all .
Gemini Live was n’t a fan of mine either .
“ You directly challenged my statements or questions without render further context or account , ” the bot said when I ask it to inspect my interaction with it . “ Your response were often brief and lacked elaboration [ and ] you frequently shift the conversation short , make it difficult to uphold a coherent dialogue . ”
mediocre enough , Gemini Live . Fair enough .
