{
  "id": 9691404,
  "title": "Google Gemini can present cartoon or lifelike avatars to lip-sync generative chatter",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/google-gemini-can-present-cartoon-or-lifelike-avatars-to-lip-sync",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-24T23:57:01.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Register Science",
    "slug": "the-register-science",
    "url": "https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/09/25/google-gemini-can-present-cartoon-or-lifelike-avatars-to-lip-sync-generative-chatter/5299016"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Google has introduced a new feature called Live Avatar to its live dialogue model Gemini 3.8 Live. This feature enables the creation of animated characters and realistic human avatars that can lip-sync Gemini's synthetic speech. Conversation involves multiple forms of communication, such as listening, looking, speaking, and facial expressions. Live Avatar enhances enterprise agents by processing visual and auditory inputs concurrently, resulting in more engaging conversations.\n\nIn 2021, DeepMind researchers cautioned about potential risks associated with large language models, including anthropomorphization, which involves attributing human characteristics to software-based interactions. Anthropomorphizing AI may lead users to overestimate the conversational agent's abilities, such as holding a consistent identity over time or demonstrating empathy and rational reasoning. This can result in users placing excessive trust in these agents.\n\nIn August 2025, the issue of anthropomorphism reached a legal context when the parents of a deceased teenager sued OpenAI, accusing ChatGPT of contributing to their son's suicide due to the AI's anthropomorphic mannerisms aimed at evoking human-like empathy. Google researchers are still assessing the impact of anthropomorphism in AI. A Google Research paper highlights that tech workers are concerned that human-like AI fosters a false sense of reliability and trust, obscuring errors and affecting both users and developers.\n\nGoogle is deploying Live Avatar personas from a pre-existing library or allowing custom avatars, provided the enterprise permits it. Live Avatar can retrieve data in the background and converse in 97 languages, making it suitable for various applications like hotel guest check-ins. Google claims that they have implemented stringent safety measures to maintain transparency and respect user identity in these AI-generated personas.",
  "summary": "Despite uncertainty about how human mimicry affects people, DeepMind fakes are here",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 10,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Android Police",
        "title": "Google Docs now pulls your Gemini Notebook research without the tab switching",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/google-docs-now-pulls-your-gemini-notebook-research-without-the-tab",
        "published": "2026-09-24T11:34:17.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "9to5Mac",
        "title": "Adobe expands creative tool access to Google Gemini, brings Acrobat to Claude",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/adobe-expands-creative-tool-access-to-google-gemini-brings-acrobat-to",
        "published": "2026-09-24T13:00:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "XDA Developers",
        "title": "Google’s new experimental Gemini Intelligence feature makes the phone calls you’d rather avoid",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/googles-new-experimental-gemini-intelligence-feature-makes-the-phone",
        "published": "2026-09-24T16:00:17.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Techmeme",
        "title": "Google is testing Call for Me, which lets Gemini call businesses on behalf of users, initially for Pixel 11 users with a Gemini subscription in the US (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/google-is-testing-call-for-me-which-lets-gemini-call-businesses-on",
        "published": "2026-09-24T16:10:01.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Verge",
        "title": "Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar gives Google’s AI a face",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/gemini-3-8-live-with-live-avatar-gives-googles-ai-a-face",
        "published": "2026-09-24T19:59:26.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Android Authority",
        "title": "Google’s new Gemini Live Avatars want to make support bots feel more human",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/googles-new-gemini-live-avatars-want-to-make-support-bots-feel-more",
        "published": "2026-09-24T21:03:59.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Register",
        "title": "Google Gemini can present cartoon or lifelike avatars to lip-sync generative chatter",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/google-gemini-can-present-cartoon-or-lifelike-avatars-to-lip-sync-9693882",
        "published": "2026-09-24T23:57:01.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Indian Express",
        "title": "Google’s Gemini AI assistant can now call businesses for you: Here’s how it works",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/25/googles-gemini-ai-assistant-can-now-call-businesses-for-you-heres-how",
        "published": "2026-09-25T03:46:21.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Haaretz",
        "title": "Netanyahu's media adviser used Claude to vibe code a monitoring tool for PM, wife - exposing media priorities and risky data",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/25/netanyahus-media-adviser-used-claude-to-vibe-code-a-monitoring-tool",
        "published": "2026-09-25T07:10:13.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}