Google releases Gemini 3.8 Live with background reasoning for voice agents

Google introduced two native-audio models that combine real-time speech with multimodal context, tool use and, in the Extended Thinking version, background reasoning.

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Summary

Google announced Gemini 3.8 Live and Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking on 15 September. The models support visual context, switching across 97 languages and asynchronous tools; Google reports leading results on speech-agent benchmarks.

Why it matters

This moves voice assistants closer to persistent agents that can reason and act while maintaining a natural conversation.

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Introducing Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking
Google introduces Gemini 3.8 Live and Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

Summary

Why it matters

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