Google just renamed its AI chatbot Bard to “Gemini,” the same name as the underlying large language model. As part of this change, there are changes like a more polished UI, image generation, and a paid version that (just like the paid version of ChatGPT) gives you access to a smarter, more capable model. Google is also building Gemini as a potential replacement for Google Assistant, but it’s not quite ready for that yet.
Some people trying the updated Gemini chatbot are taking to Reddit and other social media platforms to complain about issues that didn’t seem to affect the earlier Bard chatbot or Google Assistant. Some issues are rather silly and not harmful, but still weird. For example, a handful of people have complained that Gemini sometimes switches languages to Russian or Thai mid-sentence to go back (or not) to English. Others have complained that Gemini’s restrictions seem a bit excessive, as it outright refuses to comply with a number of requests that aren’t harmful and can be done by other chatbots (and even by the previous version of Bard). These restrictions seem to get a little more annoying once you take into account that they can disrupt your workflow. One user complained that Gemini is “unable” to proofread text, which is a basic functionality in other chatbots.
Many issues are related to the fact that you can use Gemini this as your assistant app in place of the old reliable Google Assistant. Trying to do the same things you did previously with Assistant, however, can yield mix results. One person complained that Gemini couldn’t figure out Assistant’s old routines that have been in place for years.
AI might be the future, but for the time being, it will still need a lot of work before it can actually replace the tech we use on a daily basis. It’s certainly weird for an “improvement” from Google to actually be a regression from something that was decent before. Then again, the initial version of Bard also had some considerable problems and things to improve, so hopefully, Google can fix stuff up from here.
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