If you and your group of friends are having trouble figuring out what to watch on TV, Google’s upgraded Gemini AI-powered assistant might be able to help.
Rather than simply look up what’s playing now or calling out a specific title, the AI is smart enough to understand multifaceted and even vague suggestions to offer a recommendations. You can ask it to find something for you and your friends, noting your different preferences, and Google Assistant figures out a choice you can agree on (theoretically).
Or you can ask for something vague like “What’s that new hospital drama that everyone’s talking about?” and it will show a few recommendations like “The Pitt.”
The new version of the assistant rolled out on the TCL QM9K with Google TV on Monday, but the company plans to expand this to additional newer TVs, and next year start to add the capabilities to some older televisions.
The addition of Gemini to Google TV offers an early glimpse into how AI will change the television viewing experience, with the hope the interactions with your smart TV will be more conversational. It’s also just the latest way Google, which has invested billions of dollars into AI development, is bringing the technology to different facets of our lives.
“This is a natural stepping stone to provide a more natural interface to talk to your TV, not only to find out what to watch, but to explore things in different ways,” said Shalini Govil-Pai, vice president of TV at Google. “What we’ve launched with TCL is where we think the industry is going.”
The new TCL TV will have far-field microphones built in, as well as sensors that detect whether you’re around. Those allow you to talk directly to the TV without holding a remote control, mimicking the kind of experience people are used to when talking to a smart speaker.
Indeed, Govil-Pai doesn’t expect you to just ask your TV about what shows and movies to watch, but pose more general questions like the distance between the Earth and the moon. She said that the Gemini-powered TV would not only answer the question with a spoken answer, but also call up YouTube videos to help you dive further into the topic.
The idea of turning a smart TV into the next smart hub similar to a speaker in the kitchen has been around. But Govil-Pai believes the additional of a generative AI-powered assistant opens the door to more types of conversations with your TV.
Beyond answering “knowledge inquiries” and recommending shows, Govil-Pai said she envisions the TV offering shopping and travel content and ways to make purchases tied to the programs you watch.
Before the end of the year, the Gemini capability will come to devices like Google’s own Google TV Streamer, Walmart onn televisions and more sets from TCL and Hisense.
