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Techopedia had the opportunity to get a hands-on demo of Gemini Live at the Made by Google event, and it showed clear promise as the truly conversational AI you’ve hoped for, provided everything works as expected.
The best way of describing Gemini Live is like a fully-realized version of OpenAI’s GPT-4o built for your phone. You can ask questions or issue commands and get a natural-sounding answer, even with vocal fry (like “um” and “like”). You can talk over it or ask it to change commands mid-stream. Simply put, this is probably what you expected when mobile AI assistants first arrived.
As an example, Gemini Product Lead Christopher Haire showed me what happens when you ask about a ’60s muscle car. He not only got an accurate, thoughtful response, he asked follow-up questions and had a back-and-forth that felt natural and informative. This included suggestions for modern muscle cars that recaptured the spirit of the ’60s (the Ford Mustang GT and Dodge Challenger, of course).
These are ideal circumstances, of course, and Google was going to ask questions with relatively safe answers. Haire also noted that the reliance on Gemini Advanced meant that a spotty connection would still be an issue, but that’s true of any cloud-based AI.
Haire also pointed out that Google is working to bring this kind of sophistication to on-device AI. While there’s certainly no firm timeline for this, it’s more a question of “when” than “if.” That could help in situations where a constant connection isn’t practical, such as in the developing world.
One thing is clear: Apple Intelligence has a lot to live up to, and it might still fall short. Apple is giving Siri a major upgrade with screen content awareness, more natural chats, and app-specific tasks, but it won’t have the sheer resources (or added development time) of Gemini Live as we saw it in the hands-on. Moreover, those features might not show up in earnest until 2025. Given that Gemini is rolling out very quickly (the Pixel 9 and every other compatible device should have it within a couple of weeks), Apple will be at a disadvantage for a while.
