Gemini is fucking garbage, it’s useless as an assistant and Google destroyed Assistant which could do genuinely helpful things like navigate hands free, set timers reliably and without Internet connections, set calendar reminders, etc.
The funny thing is there’s no reason for it to be so shitty just because they use Gemini for it. LLMs can use tools if given access. There’s no reason they can’t give it a tool to use intents to launch activities. I can run their own open weight Gemma model in llama.cpp and I’m pretty sure it can call tools.
Lately I feel like Google or Microsoft could pay me like a million a year and I could single-handedly fix their most broken products and the AI doesn’t even have to go. Teams? Don’t care how much tracking they put in it, it can be made more performant and the UI can be made usable. Gemini? Could legitimately be fixed to do everything the old Google assistant did and more. Outlook though? Yeah that one has to go. No saving it anymore.
I rely on Android Auto in my commute. A couple of weeks ago maps wasn’t displaying correctly, so I rebooted my phone. All of a sudden assistant was replaced… 30km later I pulled over and switched it back.
If I’m writing an SMS, I want it written, not start a dialogue with some temu hal9000 clone.
It’s really good at setting alarms. That’s all I’ve ever used it for. It sets multiple alarms so I don’t have to fiddle with the annoying alarm clock interface on my phone.
Gemini is fucking garbage, it’s useless as an assistant and Google destroyed Assistant which could do genuinely helpful things like navigate hands free, set timers reliably and without Internet connections, set calendar reminders, etc.
Try to use voice commands to navigate now?
Gemini tells you to use the Maps app.
Fuck you Gemini, that’s not helpful at all.
Get your shit together Google.
The funny thing is there’s no reason for it to be so shitty just because they use Gemini for it. LLMs can use tools if given access. There’s no reason they can’t give it a tool to use intents to launch activities. I can run their own open weight Gemma model in llama.cpp and I’m pretty sure it can call tools.
Lately I feel like Google or Microsoft could pay me like a million a year and I could single-handedly fix their most broken products and the AI doesn’t even have to go. Teams? Don’t care how much tracking they put in it, it can be made more performant and the UI can be made usable. Gemini? Could legitimately be fixed to do everything the old Google assistant did and more. Outlook though? Yeah that one has to go. No saving it anymore.
Add some keyword along the lines “Tell Google Assistant to…”
I rely on Android Auto in my commute. A couple of weeks ago maps wasn’t displaying correctly, so I rebooted my phone. All of a sudden assistant was replaced… 30km later I pulled over and switched it back.
If I’m writing an SMS, I want it written, not start a dialogue with some temu hal9000 clone.
It’s really good at setting alarms. That’s all I’ve ever used it for. It sets multiple alarms so I don’t have to fiddle with the annoying alarm clock interface on my phone.