{"id":273139,"date":"2025-11-05T14:03:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T14:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/273139\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T14:03:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T14:03:19","slug":"googles-gemini-for-home-hands-on-ai-that-watches-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/273139\/","title":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s Gemini for Home hands-on: AI that watches everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend, I turned my home into a test lab for Google\u2019s new Gemini for Home AI<\/a> and subjected my family to 72 hours of surveillance as it watched, interpreted, and narrated our every move. My purpose? To find out if an AI that sees everything is actually helpful or just plain creepy.<\/p>\n

\u201cR unpacking items from a box,\u201d read one notification from the Nest camera on a shelf in the kitchen. \u201cJenni cuts a pie \/ B walks into the kitchen, washes dishes in the sink \/ Jenni gets a drink from the refrigerator,\u201d it continued. Sometimes, the alerts sounded like the start of a joke, \u201cA dog, a person, and two cats walk into the room \/ Two chickens walk across the patio.\u201d<\/p>\n

But these weren\u2019t jokes. They were mostly accurate descriptions of the goings-on in and around my home, where I\u2019d installed several Google Nest cameras powered by Gemini for Home.<\/a> This is a new AI layer in the Google Home app that interprets footage from the cameras and \u2014 combined with Nest\u2019s facial recognition feature<\/a> \u2014 delivers a written description of the events, including who or what is present, what they are doing, and sometimes even what they\u2019re wearing.<\/p>\n

For example, now, instead of alerts saying \u201canimal detected on the porch,\u201d I get more descriptive versions telling me that it\u2019s two chickens or one dog. One of those requires immediate action on my part (my husband is not a fan of chickens pooping on our outdoor couch). The other I can ignore. Alerts like the one from the Nest Doorbell at 1AM, which clarifies it\u2019s my son at the front door trying to get in, are less anxiety-inducing than one that just says \u201cperson detected.\u201d<\/p>\n

1\/3The new Nest Cam Indoor 2K (wired) in a delightful cherry red.<\/p>\n

Using AI to improve the constant barrage of notifications from security cameras is a major upgrade \u2014 one that every manufacturer from Ring<\/a> to Arlo<\/a> to Wyze<\/a> is chasing. But how much can we really trust AI to watch over our home?<\/p>\n

While Gemini didn\u2019t hallucinate strangers or wildlife in my home as others have reported<\/a>, its daily summaries \u2014 called Home Briefs \u2014 in the Google Home app leaned more toward fiction than fact. This is where Gemini AI in the home becomes problematic.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t record my family inside our home. I leave the security to outdoor cameras and set any indoor cameras to switch off when we\u2019re home. But I wanted to give Gemini as much information as possible, so I packed my home with cameras all set to record.<\/p>\n

I installed the new Nest Doorbell 2K<\/a>, Nest Cam Indoor 2K<\/a>, and Nest Cam Outdoor 2K<\/a> (all wired), along with some earlier models compatible with Gemini<\/a>. This provided surveillance for the major traffic routes inside and outside my house, as well as a large swath of my backyard.<\/p>\n

When my husband left the house carrying a shotgun, the alert said he was carrying a garden tool<\/p>\n

Gemini\u2019s descriptions and the Home Brief, which are currently in early access, require a $20 per month or $200 per year Google Home Premium Advanced<\/a> subscription, which also includes 24\/7 video recording. The AI only analyzes video, not audio, presumably because it\u2019s using a vision language model for processing. Gemini AI also powers a new feature in the Google Home app called Ask Home, which lets you search recorded video, something also offered by Ring.<\/p>\n

When I tested Ring\u2019s version of video search<\/a>, I found it helpful for keeping tabs on my outdoor cat. Google\u2019s version is better, because it understood the context of my requests. When I asked both to show me the last time chickens were on my porch, Gemini surfaced the most recent sightings, whereas Ring showed me the best match, which was from three days ago.<\/p>\n

But beyond finding errant animals, I have struggled to find value in this blow-by-blow account of the actions in my home. And yes, it feels creepy.<\/p>\n

1\/4The Home Brief summarizes Halloween and hallucinates that my daughter is with me.<\/p>\n

The real-time alerts were mostly accurate and straightforward. I only spotted two major errors: it mistook my dog for a fox in the backyard, and while I had a package sitting on my doorstep waiting to be picked up, anyone approaching the door became someone delivering a package.<\/p>\n

However, Gemini appears to have some selective interpretations. I tried to get it to say I was holding a knife \u2014 even brandishing it threateningly at the camera. But it would just use words like chopping or carving in the descriptions, no mention of a knife. And it was a big knife!<\/p>\n

When my husband left the house carrying a shotgun, the alert said he was carrying a garden tool. It\u2019s unclear whether this is intentional (I\u2019ve reached out to Google), but not identifying weapons seems like a significant oversight for a security-focused system. I would like to know if there is a person with a gun on my porch or wielding a knife in my home.<\/p>\n

Google Home needs a way to prioritize urgent alerts over less important ones<\/p>\n

The daily Home Briefs is where it got weird. Around 8:30 each night, the Google Home app presents its interpretation of the day\u2019s events in a new Activity Tab. You can customize this to focus on things you\u2019re most interested in; for me, that\u2019s animals and teenagers arriving home past curfew.<\/p>\n

The summaries were about 80 percent correct, with a few less concerning confusions \u2014 it said a pizza oven was delivered when I was actually taking it away. But my main issue was with the heavy-handed editorializing in the summaries. Gemini took accurate real-time descriptions of events and turned them into a narrative full of declarative sentences that were simply incorrect.<\/p>\n

For example, on Halloween, the summary said \u201cJenni and R were seen interacting with the trick-or-treaters and enjoying the festive atmosphere.\u201d While I did pass out candy, my daughter R wasn\u2019t home. Another summary detailed how my husband and I had spent an enjoyable evening relaxing on the couch along with others. We were home alone.<\/p>\n

Home Brief is an interesting concept. Receiving an end-of-day summary rather than being constantly distracted by alerts throughout the day could help reduce notification fatigue. But it doesn\u2019t mean I can turn off the real-time notifications. I don\u2019t want to wait for a cheerful evening Home Brief to find out about the person who broke into my car at 6 in the morning, or that a fox got into the hen house.<\/p>\n

Google Home needs a way to prioritize urgent alerts over less important ones. It also needs to integrate these with my smart home so that I can use specific events \u2014 such as chickens on the porch \u2014 to trigger automated responses.<\/p>\n

But making stuff up as the Home Brief did is inexcusable for a system used for home security. Google Home notes that Gemini may make mistakes and offers short clips under the Home Brief so you can check its work, for example, to see that my husband and I were sitting alone in the living room after all. But while Gemini may be able to describe what\u2019s happening, it\u2019s these attempts at interpreting what matters that fall far short.<\/p>\n

While I found the AI descriptions for outdoor cameras useful, Gemini\u2019s \u201cintelligence\u201d has not convinced me to start running cameras inside the house. If I\u2019m going to consider letting AI narrate my family\u2019s life, it will need to be a lot more useful and a lot more accurate.<\/p>\n

Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Jennifer Pattison TuohyClose\"JenniferJennifer Pattison Tuohy<\/p>\n

Senior Reviewer, Smart Home<\/p>\n

Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n

FollowFollow<\/p>\n

See All by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy<\/a><\/p>\n

AICloseAI<\/p>\n

Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n

FollowFollow<\/p>\n

See All AI<\/a><\/p>\n

GoogleCloseGoogle<\/p>\n

Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n

FollowFollow<\/p>\n

See All Google<\/a><\/p>\n

Hands-onCloseHands-on<\/p>\n

Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n

FollowFollow<\/p>\n

See All Hands-on<\/a><\/p>\n

ReviewsCloseReviews<\/p>\n

Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n

FollowFollow<\/p>\n

See All Reviews<\/a><\/p>\n

Smart HomeCloseSmart Home<\/p>\n

Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n

FollowFollow<\/p>\n

See All Smart Home<\/a><\/p>\n

Smart Home ReviewsCloseSmart Home Reviews<\/p>\n

Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n

FollowFollow<\/p>\n

See All Smart Home Reviews<\/a><\/p>\n

TechCloseTech<\/p>\n

Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n

FollowFollow<\/p>\n

See All Tech<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend, I turned my home into a test lab for Google\u2019s new Gemini for Home AI and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,168,5253,900,5254,5255,172,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-273139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-google","12":"tag-hands-on","13":"tag-reviews","14":"tag-smart-home","15":"tag-smart-home-reviews","16":"tag-tech","17":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}