https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/08/google-assistant-is-now-powered-by-gemini-sort-of/
Google Assistant users now have the choice of switching to one of Google's Gemini AI models to answer queries, generate artwork and more.
Can I do this for my Google home device? It's ability to answer questions has really been going downhill
It’ll be mobile-only; Google Assistant devices like Nest and Home speakers and displays won’t see changes just yet.
Guess I'll wait
Man the weirdest thing I've noticed with my Google home getting shitter is saying "stop" when a timer is going off—say stop, wait 4 seconds for it to acknowledge
I thought that was just me! I feel like the overall quality of Google home has been going down. I have to tell Google to turn off my lights like 3 times before it works now a days
I've been degoogling and de-nesting for the last year, especially since the door sensors are going to stop working, just so they can try to sell ADT stuff.
I can no longer trust Google not to kill everything it touches.
What do you use nowadays that's on the safer side? I don't know much outside of the big players like Google. Any advice will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
NewPipe for YouTube, ProtonVPN to help hide my activity from trackers, Firefox with Privacy Badger and uBlock, Tidal as a replacement for YT Music, I've found Moon FM to work for me as a replacement for Google Podcasts.
I'll be hosting a NAS with Immich to replace Google Photos and have other file storage some time this year.
I use an android, so there's only so much I can do (and I don't want to fiddle with GrapheneOS or iPhones). But I find things more enjoyable without constant ads everywhere and without new "features" that only serve to try to keep all your attention on an app all the time.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It’ll be mobile-only; Google Assistant devices like Nest and Home speakers and displays won’t see changes just yet.
The experience comes in the form of an overlay that acts as a frontend for the Gemini models and provides contextual recommendations and suggestions, Sissie Hsiao, Google Assistant VP, told TechCrunch in a press briefing.
Indeed, the Gemini-powered Assistant — which, depending on the device, can be summoned with a corner swipe, power button tap or “Hey Google” hotword — can accept images as well as text and voice commands.
Google gives a few example prompts in the onboarding flow, like “Help me craft a text response to my friend who is stressed at work,” “Give me some ideas to surprise my concert-loving friend on their birthday” and “Help me incorporate more plant-based options in my diet.” As on the web, Gemini in Assistant can also create images, although it’s not clear which model’s doing the generating; Bard previously tapped Imagen 2 for this purpose.
It and the capabilities it brings, like better reasoning, coding and instruction-following skills, are gated behind a new product, Gemini Advanced, that’s part of a new subscription, the Google One AI Premium Plan, priced at $20 per month.
But I wonder whether that’ll be enough to pacify Google Assistant users who perceive the AI Premium Plan as an effort to charge for model updates that were previously free.
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As always, Google forgets that English is not exclusively for the USA.
The new Gemini-powered Assistant is available in English starting today in the U.S. It’ll come to more locations — and Japanese and Korean — starting next week.