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Google TV's new AI features aim to upgrade your TV watching experience
- The Google TV Streamer features new hardware and enhanced software for an upgraded Google TV experience.
- The device will offer Gemini-powered content suggestions from across all your subscriptions.
- Google TV is also getting AI overviews, including content ratings and viewer feedback.
Google has unveiled the Google TV Streamer, touting it as the company’s best streaming device yet. Alongside enhanced hardware, the Streamer introduces innovative software features to the Google TV experience, powered by Google’s Gemini AI.
With Google TV, you can already browse an entire library of free streaming content, including 700,000 shows from over 800 free channels, without using any streaming apps. If you’re into live TV, there’s a dedicated tab for that, too, aggregating content from sources like YouTube TV and free channels from Pluto TV and Tubi.
Google thinks it has cracked the code on that as well. Utilizing the power of Gemini, Google TV can now offer AI-powered recommendations based on a blend of Google’s artificial intelligence and user preferences. This means viewers would receive tailored content suggestions from across all their subscriptions, making it easier to discover new shows and movies.
Additionally, Google TV will be able to create personalized watchlists for each household member, which would presumably require multiple profiles to be set up within Google accounts and streaming apps.
Google claims that Google TV’s new AI overviews will do just that, summarizing plots, user reviews, and even flagging content that might not be suitable for everyone. We’ll have to see how accurate and helpful these AI summaries actually are in practice, given that Google’s AI overviews for Google Search didn’t do that well.
On the visual front, Google TV is introducing a new Ambient mode. Previously, the device displayed user-submitted pictures or screensavers when idle. The new feature will allow you to use AI to generate custom wallpapers or screensavers, adding a personal touch to your TV’s downtime.
It’s unclear which older Google TV or Android TV devices will receive these updates (if any) or when that might happen, but the features will likely remain exclusive to the new Google TV Streamer for some time to keep it ahead of the pack. Priced at $99.99, the Google TV Streamer will be available starting September 24 through the Google Store and other retailers.
