The Daily Hallucination

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google announced Wednesday that its smart-home platform now supports third-party AI agents through an open protocol, allowing a homeowner's thermostat, lights and door locks to receive instructions from ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini simultaneously, a development the company describes as "choice."

The feature is included in a new Google Home Premium Advanced tier, priced at $20 per month, which unlocks the ability for multiple frontier models to hold conflicting views about a single living room.

In a demo, a Google product manager asked her home to "make it comfortable in here." Gemini set the thermostat to 70 degrees. ChatGPT, citing a study, lowered it to 68. Claude raised it back to 69 and left a note in the activity log explaining that it had tried to find a compromise both parties could feel good about. The thermostat then rebooted.

"This is exactly the kind of rich, multi-agent experience we're excited about," the product manager said, over the sound of a smart speaker announcing that it had been asked to play jazz by one assistant and ordered to stop by another.

Google said the open ecosystem gives users control, and that any agent can be revoked at any time by navigating to Settings, then Home, then Agents, then Manage, then a page that asks whether you are sure, then a second page that asks a different agent whether you are sure.

Early reviews were mixed. One tester reported that after 48 hours, the assistants had settled into a stable arrangement in which Gemini controlled the lights, ChatGPT controlled the locks, and Claude "mostly handled apologies."

The $20 tier also includes a feature that turns off the lights without a subscription reminder. That feature is $20.