Google's AI is now even smarter, and more versatile. Gemini Live is the more conversational, natural language way of interacting with the Google Gemini AI bot using your voice. The idea is you chat with it like you would chat with a friend, interruptions and all, even if the actual answers are the same as you'd get from typing your queries into Gemini as normal. Now, about a year and a half after its debut, Gemini Live has been given what Google is describing as its "biggest update ever." The update makes the Gemini Live mode even more natural and even more conversational than before, with a better understanding of tone, nuance, pronunciation, and rhythm.

Gemini Live, Google's AI chatbot you can talk to like a person, is about to support more languages. The company is rolling out support for the generative AI virtual assistant in over 40 languages in the coming weeks. Gemini Live is Google's take on "free-flowing, natural conversations" in this new generative AI era. You can use it for things like brainstorming for events, diving down learning rabbit holes or practicing for job interview questions (and receiving real-time feedback). Although Google describes it as like talking with a friend, I'm unsure how many would do all of that.

Google's new superphone goes all out on battery, camera and smarts, leading a new line of Android devices that can run the company's Gemini AI system with a next-generation conversational voice assistant that is a huge leap forward. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. The Pixel 9 Pro XL is the biggest normal phone Google makes, costing from 1,099 ( 1,199/ 1,099/A 1,849) and is joined for the first time this year by a smaller 9 Pro model with the same specs and camera costing 999 ( 1,099/ 999/A 1,699). The XL is therefore for people who want a huge screen and big battery.

Google launched a barrage of new hardware this week, from the Pixel 9 smartphones to new wireless earbuds. Underpinning all the shiny gadgetry is Google's Gemini artificially intelligent assistant. The chatbot launched earlier this year and is now the default assistant on the Pixel 9 series and is already available on millions of Android phones worldwide. But there's a new way to talk to this chatbot that's now rolling out: Gemini Live. This is Google's response to OpenAI's GPT-4o, a way to talk to the assistant naturally, much like a normal voice conversation between two humans (or at least that's the goal).

On Tuesday, Google announced its own new tools, including a conversational assistant called Gemini Live, which can do many of the same things. It also revealed that it's building a sort of "do-everything" AI agent, which is currently in development but will not be released until later this year. Soon you'll be able to explore for yourself to gauge whether you'll turn to these tools in your daily routine as much as their makers hope, or whether they're more like a sci-fi party trick that eventually loses its charm. Here's what you should know about how to access these new tools, what you might use them for, and how much it will cost. What it's capable of: The model can talk with you in real time, with a response delay of about 320 milliseconds, which OpenAI says is on par with natural human conversation.