LG has leaned pretty heavily into the world of artificial intelligence as a major selling point for its 2018 products, particularly in the case of its ThinQ-branded televisions.
As of today, those TVs are about to get even smarter, with a new update adding Google Assistant support to the South Korean company's already impressive AI-powered OLED and LED televisions in Australia.
Speaking into LG's signature Magic Remote, users can now ask their ThinQ televisions questions or command them to perform tasks using only their voice – LG has assured us that efforts have been made to make its voice recognition software more casual, meaning you won't have to speak in a stilted, robotic manner in order for it to understand you.
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LG hopes that AI will help make the television the centrepiece of the home again, allowing families to engage with smart assistants and content together in a more social way, rather than separately on their own phones.
And, because it's powered by Google, that functionality will also extend to any other smart devices in your home that support Google Assistant, including smart light bulbs, smart speakers, smart locks, robot vacuums and even smart kettles.
On top of this, LG's 2018 ThinQ televisions have also received Amazon Alexa support today, allowing users to control their LG TV by issuing commands through an Alexa speaker – such as the Amazon Echo Dot – as long as both devices are attached to the same network (it's worth noting that Alexa smart assistant functionality will not be featured on the TVs themselves). That means you can search for content, control volume and playback and change channels via any Alexa speaker.
If you're curious to see what LG's Google Assistant support looks like in practice, you can check out the video below, in which several sentient robots (or poorly dubbed actors) are seen engaging with their AI-powered ThinQ televisions in a totally natural way.
