When AI Sees Deer in Your Living Room: The Quirks of Smart Home Tech

Google's latest smart home feature, Gemini for Home, is making waves, but not always in a good way. This AI-powered tool is designed to help you keep an eye on your home by summarizing video footage and sending you notifications. However, it seems that Gemini has a bit of a learning curve when it comes to recognizing everyday objects and animals. For instance, Gemini has been known to mistake dogs for deer, which can lead to some amusing, but ultimately frustrating, notifications. This isn't the only issue with Gemini's understanding of video footage. It has also been known to mistake empty rooms for intruders, which can be alarming and cause unnecessary stress. Despite these issues, Gemini does have some useful features. It can create automations based on your natural language requests and retrieve past event clips, as long as you are specific about what you want. However, these features are only available with a paid subscription, which can be a bit pricey. Google is aware of these issues and is working to improve Gemini's accuracy. They suggest that users can help train the AI by correcting its mistakes. However, this can be a time-consuming process and may not always be effective. In the meantime, users are left to deal with the quirks of this smart home technology. While it can be entertaining to see what Gemini will mistake next, it's not always a reliable tool for keeping your home secure. It's important to remember that AI is still learning and improving, and Gemini for Home is no exception.