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Gemini Expands to Live Camera Feeds: What It Means for Your Privacy

Gemini for Home's AI is getting a significant upgrade -- if you don't mind it peering through your security cam.

Headshot of Tyler Lacoma
Headshot of Tyler Lacoma
Tyler Lacoma Editor / Home Security and Smart Home
Tyler has worked on, lived with and tested all types of smart home and security technology for over a dozen years, explaining the latest features, privacy tricks, and top recommendations. With degrees in Business Management, Literature and Technical Writing, Tyler takes every opportunity to play with the latest AI technology, push smart devices to their limits and occasionally throw cameras off his roof, all to find the best devices to trust in your life. He always checks with the renters (and pets) in his life to see what smart products can work for everyone, in every living situation. Living in beautiful Bend, Oregon gives Tyler plenty of opportunities to test the latest tech in every kind of weather and temperature. But when not at work, he can be found hiking the trails, trying out a new food recipe for his loved ones, keeping up on his favorite reading, or gaming with good friends.
Expertise Smart home | Smart security | Home tech | Energy savings | A/V
Tyler Lacoma
2 min read
Yale's smart lock on a white door beside a white Nest video doorbell.

More advanced Nest doorbells and cameras are getting new features that let AI look through their lives views.

 Yale

Google's Gemini for Home AI originally could only access stored video clips from compatible security cameras. It could answer questions about object locations, notify you when a UPS van arrived and provide daily summaries of motion-detected activity captured by the cameras. Now, that AI analysis is getting a significant live viewing boost.

According to Anish Kattukaran, chief product officer for Google Home, and his latest X posts on the changes, Google Home is introducing the ability to ask Gemini for Home Live Search questions, letting the AI look at what the camera currently sees, analyze that footage and explain it.

AI Atlas

"You can now ask Gemini to understand the current state of your home," Kattukaran wrote. "(For example), Hey Google, is there a car in the driveway?'" 

These options will be available only to Google Home Premium Advanced subscribers, with plans starting at $20.

A Google representative didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other upgrades to Google Home include the full rollout of Yale Smart Lock integration and improved casual conversation with Gemini for Home.

How invasive are these Gemini live viewing features?

Google Home app showing a Gemini answer about cameras seeing dogs.

Gemini can search your video history for you -- but jumping to live views is a significant expansion.

 Tyler Lacoma/CNET

Concerns about Gemini AI accessing security cameras on demand are understandable. Similar privacy questions have arisen with features like Ring's pet-finding Search Party and the extent of law enforcement access to Flock Safety surveillance.

Unlike Ring's cut-short partnership, Google Nest has never had any contracts with surveillance companies like Flock. However, the company has shared footage with police in the past, most notably when Nest recovered cloud footage, first assumed deleted, from a Nest camera, to help in the case of Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of Today Show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie.

It is unclear whether the new Live Search feature will allow Gemini for Home to access cameras on demand in cases involving law enforcement requests. According to Google's description, Gemini for Home can use Live Search whenever questions pertain to a home's current state, giving the AI broad access. Google has not yet clarified whether Live Search can be disabled or how live camera feeds might be handled in relation to police or other privacy concerns.

Whenever Gemini for Home accesses a Nest camera, the footage may be used for AI training purposes. Details about how Live Search is activated and managed have not been fully disclosed. By default, the latest Nest cameras provide 6 hours of free cloud video storage, but Gemini for Home can only access stored or live footage if people have the appropriate subscription plan and have enabled the feature.