Google is putting it's Gemini 2.0 AI into robots — here's how it's going

Google Gemini and a pair of robotic hands
(Image credit: Google)

Artificial intelligence is reaching out across just about every piece of tech you can think of, and Google's Gemini is right at the forefront.

The tech giant is seemingly rolling out a new 'Circle to Search' tweaks after its new 'AI Mode' for Search and Gemini Calendar integration, but its DeepMind AI team has been far more ambitious.

That team has developed two new models of Gemini specifically designed to work with robots.

The first, called just "Gemini Robotics", is an advanced vision-language-action (VLA) LLM with Gemini 2.0 as its foundation. It's able to use physical motion to respond to prompts.

Google rolling out Gemini to robots

In a recent press briefing attended by The Verge, DeepMind's senior director and head of robotics, Carolina Parada explained Gemini Robotics “draws from Gemini’s multimodal world understanding and transfers it to the real world by adding physical actions as a new modality.”

The model makes big strides in generality, interactivity, and dexterity, the company says.

“While we have made progress in each one of these areas individually in the past with general robotics, we’re bringing [drastically] increasing performance in all three areas with a single model,” Parada explained.

“This enables us to build robots that are more capable, that are more responsive and that are more robust to changes in their environment.”

Gemini Robotics: Dynamic interactions - YouTube Gemini Robotics: Dynamic interactions - YouTube
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Gemini Robots-ER model

The second model is called Gemini Robots-ER, which is a VLM with "advanced spatial understanding", with the robot running the model able to make its own way through and environment as things change around it.

It's able to discern between different shapes and items, making it ideal for packing items.

Gemini Robotics: Dexterous skills - YouTube Gemini Robotics: Dexterous skills - YouTube
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As for the robots themselves, Google is partnering with Austin-based robotics company Apptronik to "build the next generation of humanoid robots," while the likes of Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics and more are also getting test access to the Gemini Robotics-ER model.

The advancements of robotics is seemingly being supercharged as the next logical step for AI application. At last year's CES 2024, Tom's Guide noticed the proliferation of robotics and we think it's fair to say the industry is about to have its iPhone moment.

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Lloyd Coombes
Contributing writer

Lloyd Coombes is a freelance tech and fitness writer. He's an expert in all things Apple as well as in computer and gaming tech, with previous works published on TechRadar, Tom's Guide, Live Science and more. You'll find him regularly testing the latest MacBook or iPhone, but he spends most of his time writing about video games as Gaming Editor for the Daily Star. He also covers board games and virtual reality, just to round out the nerdy pursuits.

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