Google DeepMind has announced Project Astra, a new voice-operated AI assistant that can see and hear in real-time, transforming its Gemini chatbot into a personal AI agent. Astra, a multimodal AI solution, can analyze and discuss objects and scenes realistically, and is designed to enhance AI-powered search and planning solutions. The announcement was made at Google I/O 2024, a day after OpenAI revealed a similar vision for ChatGPT with GPT-4o. Astra aims to provide more natural interactions and real-time responses to human queries, positioning itself as a direct competitor to the new ChatGPT.