Google Gemini's Blunder: My Dog Was Stripped of Its "Canine Status" by AI

These days, AI can not only help you turn on the lights but also make your dog want to move out!

As soon as an editor turned on Gemini for Home, he received a notification from the camera: "A cat jumped onto the sofa."

The problem is - he doesn't have a cat, only a dog.

Google's new home AI, "Gemini," is supposed to be the center of smart home: it can recognize people, packages, and even turn on the lights automatically for you.

But in its eyes, species seem to be an optional factor.

As a result, the dog became a cat, the home became an experimental field, and the "intelligence" of AI took on a comical effect.

Welcome to the new era of Google smart home: machines are more diligent than you and also more absurd.

Even AI smarter than humans can make jokes

Just as Google officially introduced its large - model Gemini into smart homes, who would have thought that it would annoy a dog on the first day.

Julian Chokkattu received a push notification after activating Gemini for Home at his home: "A cat jumped onto the sofa."

The problem is, he doesn't have a cat at home, only a dog named Buffy.

He tried to correct the system, saying, "That's not a cat, it's a dog." Gemini politely responded, "Okay, noted."

The next day, another notification came: "A white cat appeared in the living room again."

This small farce quickly spread on social platforms. While people were laughing, they also realized that AI can already help us turn on the lights, close the doors, and recognize express deliveries, but when it comes to distinguishing between dogs and cats, it still lives in a parallel universe.

AI's enthusiasm often exceeds its understanding

Gemini's camera system relies on an algorithm called "Familiar Faces" to recognize human faces and regular visitors.

It can recognize deliverymen, neighbors, and friends, but it doesn't support pet recognition for now.

A Google spokesperson then responded:

We are improving the recognition accuracy, including adding a pet recognition function, and incorporating user feedback into model training.

In other words, the current Gemini is like an intern who just moved in: enthusiastic, capable of execution, but lacking common sense.

It can accurately recognize FedEx and UPS, but it lumps everything that is "hairy, has four legs, and jumps onto the sofa" together as a "cat."

Gemini didn't missee, it just thought too much

From a technical perspective, this is not a bug in the camera but a typical hallucination of the LLM.

Gemini's visual system first converts the picture into a text description and then lets the language model judge the content.

When the algorithm sees "white, furry, four - legged, and jumping onto the sofa," it automatically fills in: "Cat."

It didn't missee, it just confidently misunderstood.

For Gemini, the difference between a dog and a cat lies not in form but in probability.

It's not recognizing the world, but speculating about it.

Smart mistakes can also make people laugh

Ironically, apart from this mishap, Gemini performs almost perfectly in other aspects:

It can recognize the type of packages, determine the identity of visitors, and automatically generate a daily home briefing; you can even ask it, "How many times did the courier come today?" The answer is accurate.

However, when you see that summary push notification:

Early in the morning, a white cat was active in the living room.

You'll probably, like the author, smile and sigh. Sometimes, AI's intelligence is just another form of stupidity.

All this makes people can't help but wonder: since Gemini can achieve such complex home linkages, what kind of system is it exactly? And why does it keep failing in the world of "cats" and "dogs"?

From voice assistant to home brain: the debut of Gemini

With a "Hey Google," the lights turn on, the curtains draw, and the music plays. But this time, the protagonist is no longer the monotonous Google Assistant of the past.

In October 2025, Google announced that it would officially let Gemini for Home take over the smart home ecosystem, marking the entry of the voice assistant into the era of large models.

A decade of change: Google Assistant exits, Gemini takes over

Since the launch of Google Assistant in 2016, this old assistant has served in countless households around the world for nearly a decade.

It can play music, set alarms, and report the weather, but it has always been like an "obedient robot" - it understands commands but not the context.

Google wrote in its official blog:

We are upgrading Google Assistant users on mobile devices to Gemini and bringing this brand - new Gemini experience to home devices - including speakers, screens, and TVs.

This is not just a simple replacement but a reconstruction of the entire smart home ecosystem.

Gemini for Home no longer just responds to commands but tries to "understand you, reason about you, and predict you."

Its mission is to make the house become more like a living being with memory and judgment.

For the first time, home is "understood" by algorithms

The core concept of Gemini for Home is to transform AI from passively executing commands to a "brain" that can actively understand intentions and coordinate multiple devices.

Anish Kattukaran, the product leader at Google, mentioned in an interview:

In the past, the limited capabilities of AI restricted the development of smart homes; now we hope it can become an extension of humans at home, rather than just a remote control for executing commands.

In Gemini's vision, your home can not only understand "what to do" but also understand "why to do it."

In the past, when you said "Turn on the lights," the system executed; now, when you say "I'm back from work," it will automatically turn on the lights, close the windows, and play music.

This is the "semantic home" that Google hopes to achieve: making devices no longer independent of each other but sharing context.

Not just executing commands, but also understanding life

In the new version of the Google Home App, a new conversation entry called "Ask Home" has been added at the top.

The interface of the new Ask Home

You can directly ask it, "How many times did the courier come today?" "How long has the living - room light been on?"

You don't need to turn on the camera or check the historical records; it can answer directly.

Every night, the system will automatically generate a "daily home report."

Which doorbell rang, who came home, how many times UPS came, and how long the living - room light was on are all clear at a glance.

In the past, setting up home scenarios required a bunch of cumbersome commands; now, with a single sentence like "Turn off the lights, draw the curtains, and turn on white noise at nine o'clock at night," Gemini will automatically generate the corresponding process.

More importantly, this upgrade covers almost all Google Home and Nest devices since 2016. Old users can experience the new features of Gemini without replacing the hardware.

Without a logical script, the AI itself infers that "evening" means "after dark," not three o'clock in the afternoon.

This update covers all Google Home and Nest devices from the past decade.

From the first - generation speaker in 2016 to the latest Nest Hub, all can be upgraded.

Google wrote straightforwardly in the announcement:

We hope that every old device can enter the new ecosystem.

The past Google Home was a "voice control center"; the current Gemini is a "reasoning and coordination system."

It can not only execute but also understand. When you say, "I want to watch a movie," it not only turns on the TV but also automatically dims the lights, draws the curtains, and optimizes the sound system.

Gemini for Home uses our most powerful model and has the ability to reason, understand, and search.

This means that AI is starting to enter the "semantic layer" of life - understanding your words and redefining your lifestyle.

Its intelligence has exceeded the scope of "executing tasks," but it has also become dangerous: when a system can predict your behavior, it is also quietly learning your habits.

This is the reality we will face next: AI is not just your assistant but may become the narrator of your life.

Smart home 2.0: Google and Amazon start a competition

While Gemini for Home has officially moved into the living room, Alexa+ is also evolving quietly on the other side.

These two smart assistants can turn on the lights with a single sentence and trigger an alarm with a single recognition, but the competition behind them is actually deeper: whoever brings "thinking" into the home system first may gain the upper hand.

Alexa+'s ambition: not only able to talk but also be everywhere

In February this year, Amazon took the lead in announcing Alexa+, positioning it as a "next - generation generative AI assistant," which has elevated the capabilities of conversation, human - machine interaction, and task processing to a new level.

At its hardware launch event in September, Amazon demonstrated:

Alexa+ will be pre - installed in the new Echo devices.

Alexa+'s strategy is to achieve "full - scenario presence" through hardware. From speakers, TVs, doorbells to in - car systems, it responds as soon as it is called.

Google's new plan: turning home into a system

In contrast, Google has chosen a different path: it tries to integrate voice, vision, cameras, and automated processes into a unified "home brain" model.

It's not just about listening to commands, nor is it a single - device response, but "you say one thing, and it completes multiple steps."

Although this strategy is not as quick - acting as spreading hardware widely, it has potential in "scenario understanding."

In other words, Gemini hopes to shift from "what you can make me do" to "I know what you want me to do."

Beyond technology, the essence of this competition is actually a re - layout of the business model.

Amazon and its Ring brand have launched a new function called Search Party - the function of "using neighbors' cameras to help you find your lost dog."

Google unlocks its advanced intelligence through a subscription service: users need to pay to enter the "home brain" mode.

This is not just a pure technological race but also a mental game of "how much are you willing to pay for home AI."

In the past, the voice - assistant war was about "who can understand what I say"; now, the smart - home war is about "who can predict what I haven't said."

As Alexa+ and Gemini start to become more like a "person," they also make