Google's Gemini for Home AI originally could only access stored video clips from compatible security cameras. It could answer questions about object locations, notify you when a UPS van arrived and provide daily summaries of motion-detected activity captured by the cameras. Now, that AI analysis is getting a significant live viewing boost.
According to Anish Kattukaran, chief product officer for Google Home, and his latest X posts on the changes, Google Home is introducing the ability to ask Gemini for Home Live Search questions, letting the AI look at what the camera currently sees, analyze that footage and explain it.
"You can now ask Gemini to understand the current state of your home," Kattukaran wrote. "(For example), Hey Google, is there a car in the driveway?'"
These options will be available only to Google Home Premium Advanced subscribers, with plans starting at $20.
A Google representative didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other upgrades to Google Home include the full rollout of Yale Smart Lock integration and improved casual conversation with Gemini for Home.
How invasive are these Gemini live viewing features?
Gemini can search your video history for you -- but jumping to live views is a significant expansion. Tyler Lacoma/CNET
Concerns about Gemini AI accessing security cameras on demand are understandable. Similar privacy questions have arisen with features like Ring's pet-finding Search Party and the extent of law enforcement access to Flock Safety surveillance.
Unlike Ring's cut-short partnership, Google Nest has never had any contracts with surveillance companies like Flock. However, the company has shared footage with police in the past, most notably when Nest recovered cloud footage, first assumed deleted, from a Nest camera, to help in the case of Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of Today Show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie.
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