Building Eliana: A Live Voice AI Companion Named After My Daughter

Building Eliana: A Live Voice AI Companion Named After My Daughter This piece was created for the purposes of entering the Gemini Live Agent Challenge 2026. Inspiration On May 7th, 2024, after 459 contractions over 9 hours, my daughter Mikaylah Aliyah Eliana Thomas was born. Her middle name — Eliana — means "God has answered." That name came at the end of what felt like my journey through "the valley of the shadow of death." For hours, my daughter's heart rate dropped dangerously, down from 115 to 20 every minute and 20 seconds, for 45 seconds every time. The nurse assigned to my room sat and read the charts, moved my wife from side to side, called in for second and third opinions and tried to escalate to the on-call OB several times, but the OB refused to operate. As I stood in the room, brave face on for my wife who was exhausted and barely coherent, alone, unable to reach my own mother on the phone, unsure who to call, what questions to ask, what to do, the nurse approached me and h