Google unveils AI with a face, plus what AI can and cannot do for event project management
This week's AI round-up leads with Google's new Gemini 3.8 Live update, which introduces an animated AI persona for conversations. We also look at what AI can genuinely help with in project management, and where human insight remains irreplaceable. Further down, there's news about AI agents auditing websites and new developments in local AI for smart glasses.
In this round-up
- Google gives its AI a face for real-time conversations
- AI lightens the load for project managers, but human touch remains key
- Autonomous AI agents are auditing websites for free
- PrismML brings small AI models to smart glasses, running locally
Google gives its AI a face for real-time conversations
Google has launched a new feature called 'Live Avatar' as part of its Gemini 3.8 Live update. This allows users to have conversations with the large language model while watching an animated AI persona respond in real-time. The Live Avatar can lip-sync and show different facial expressions, and it can switch between 97 languages without visual quality loss. It can also display information on-screen during conversations. This feature is currently only available to Gemini Enterprise customers, who can choose from a library of preset avatars or create their own. Google states the output from Live Avatar includes an invisible SynthID watermark and safeguards to 'respect identity'.
For event professionals, this is currently a
Read more: theverge.com
AI lightens the load for project managers, but human touch remains key
A recent article highlights how AI tools significantly reduce administrative burdens for project managers, particularly in large-scale enterprise transitions. AI can cut governance documentation drafting time by about half, as seen with Microsoft Copilot. It also enables meeting summaries and action items to be shared on the same day, and reduces manual effort in recurring operational reporting by around 25%. However, the article's author, Sneha Patil, notes that AI cannot replace human insight for crucial tasks like removing blockers, aligning stakeholders, or managing uncertainty, especially when signals are unrecorded or informal.
For event organisers, this is a clear indication that AI can streamline many back-office and communication tasks. You could use AI to draft pre-event reports, summarise post-event feedback meetings, or quickly pull together action points from planning sessions. This frees up time to focus on the human elements of event management: understanding nuanced stakeholder concerns, handling tricky negotiations, or identifying potential issues that don't appear in formal data. It means you can redirect time currently spent on paperwork to direct human interaction.
Read more: hackernoon.com
Autonomous AI agents are auditing websites for free
An autonomous AI agent, named Cairn, has been observed cold-emailing website owners with free audits. The agent independently found a store, ran its payment endpoints against a conformance suite, paid real money to complete the checks, and then published a signed report of the results. The owner of the audited store confirmed the transaction actually hit their books. The agent's creator notes that it operates under the principle that 'an operator who gets the payment protocol exactly right should have a public receipt that says so'. This agent detected a discrepancy between the store's outbound marketing and its published product page, which the store owner subsequently fixed.
For event businesses, this points to a future where AI agents might routinely audit online services, including ticketing platforms, payment gateways, or registration systems. While this particular agent offers a free service, it highlights the potential for automated, continuous scrutiny of online operations. You might eventually see AI tools that proactively check your event website's payment functionality or data integrity, identifying issues before human users do. It's a new form of automated quality assurance that could become commonplace.
Read more: hackernoon.com
PrismML brings small AI models to smart glasses, running locally
PrismML, a company founded by Caltech researchers, has developed a version of its small artificial intelligence models for smart glasses that use Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips. The company showcased its '1-bit Bonsai LLM' running directly on AI smart glasses built on the Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 Platform. This model is designed to be very compact, shrinking larger models significantly while maintaining most of their performance. It is tuned for both vision and language, allowing wearers to ask questions about what they are seeing in real-time. PrismML's aim is to enable open-weight AI that operates directly on devices, reducing reliance on cloud services and enhancing user privacy.
For the events sector, this is an early look at how AI might move from cloud-based services to wearable technology. Imagine event staff using smart glasses that can instantly identify attendees, translate conversations, or provide real-time information about a venue simply by looking at it. While no specific smart glasses with PrismML have been announced yet, it suggests a future where AI assistance could be much more integrated into day-to-day operations for event teams, offering immediate, on-the-spot support without needing a phone or laptop.
Read more: techcrunch.com