Comment by film42
1 day ago
That's one take. Gemini free mode is my default LLM app on phone. Their conversational AI is really good. They're still the leader in search results which makes Gemini responses really good. And, it's also really fast. I still only pay Anthropic but Gemini is seriously good, and free.
Counter point: you have to sign your life away to use it
I have been a pixel owner since the OG pixel. I am furious with how Google has killed assistant which was fast and accurate and could operate on device if I did not have internet and replaced it with Gemini in a way that forced it down my throat and removed existing functionality for something worse that I can only use for the majority of useful use cases if I allow them to train on my data and use it for ads and measurement.
Those are product decisions that they did not have to go with.
It has completely soured me on Gemini given how much they sold my current pixel 10 Pro as having the latest in on device AI capabilities.
It is to the point where I have invested substantial tokens in building alternative solutions that I sideload onto my phone via codex to replace basic things like voice interaction with home assistant.
They have dropped the ball in so many ways and not all of them are related to the actual model quality so much as product and business decisions.
Its weird how with every gemini release there's a top comment like this. Gemini models are really good, and all companies have internal models they dont let the public have access too, they just dont tell us about them.
This narrative seems astroturfed particularly hard on this website. Like Google's AI isnt allowed to be praised on HN.