Google bets on Gemini to reinvent the smart home speaker

After years of incremental updates, Google is betting that its Gemini AI can reinvent its smart speaker. On Wednesday, the company introduced its first audio device built specifically for Gemini with the $99.99 Google Home Speaker.

The new Google Home device is the first standalone smart speaker from the tech giant since the Nest Audio in September 2020. That older device arrived at a time when smart speakers were thought of largely as handy controllers for your smart home and music-playing systems. They lacked the smarts of today’s AI chatbots, as commands often had to be phrased correctly to get things to work.

The Google Home Speaker is changing that, as you’ll be able to speak using natural language requests and even make multi-step requests using the phrasing you’d like. For instance, you could tell the speaker to “turn off all the lights except for my bedside lamp,” or...

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