Google caught the tech community off-guard a couple of weeks ago with the launch of Gemini. No, I don’t mean the LLM of the same name announced in December — I meanGoogle’s official relaunch of Bard, complete with an all-new Android app that replaces Assistant on whatever device you install it on. That represents a pretty big swing on Google’s part, a claim to the future of AI on all Android devices, regardless of manufacturer, even as it’s obvious there’s plenty of work left to be done.
Although most of the editors at Android Police have spent February seeing what Gemini is capable of, no one has spent more time with it than our own Taylor Kerns.His impressions after two weeksof use echowhat he thought at launch: Gemini is simultaneously impressive and, at least in its current state, underbaked. It can return answers to requests Assistant has never been able to complete, like recipe suggestions or step-by-step instructions for conquering basic home improvement tasks, but it also can deliver incorrect information or fail to activate the proper smart home gear.
Of course, this week,Google also had to apologizefor Gemini’s, let’s say,problematicdepiction of certain groups of humans, halting the ability to generate these images altogether. Making ethnically diverse Nazis isn’t aparticularly good look for any AI-powered bot, but when Google is staking so much of its company on Gemini (both the app and everything surrounding it), it’s particularly embarrassing. The company’s approach to AI has certainly lived up to the old adage to “move fast and break things” over the last eighteen months, and when you’re still facing stories like this, it’s tough to say that’s a good thing.
That black eye aside, I’m having fun with Gemini. I haven’t relied on Assistant for a couple of years now — the experience has degraded to the point where I’d rather manually perform actions so long as I’m not driving. My experience with Gemini matches up with Taylor’s pretty closely: sometimes exceptional, sometimes exceptionally bad. I wouldn’t be surprised if most Android Police readers are in a similar boat, just like I’m fully expecting Google to make some big improvements with Gemini throughout the rest of 2024. I/O, after all, is just a little over two months away.
Either way, it’s great to see Gemini in the hands of so many people — it’s available on nearly every Android device in more than 150 countries, excluding non-Samsung and Google foldables, for some reason. I’m curious how many Android Police readers ventured to try out the smartphone experience since launch, though. Have you left Gemini as your default virtual assistant, or are you waiting for something that feels a little more feature complete?
