It’s easy to write off the Pixel 11 Pro Fold when Samsung has the shiny new wide Fold 8. But Google’s new foldable phone is more of a direct competitor to the Fold 8 Ultra. It’s for people who actually want bigger and taller displays.

And you could argue that the Pixel 11 Pro Fold ($1,899 / AU$2,799) is an even better value. It’s not just $200 cheaper than the Ultra. It has a brighter display, better durability and even smarter AI features.

I went hands on with the new Pixel 11 Pro Fold and came away pretty impressed with its upgrades — with the exception of the gimmicky HiLight. Here’s how it stacks up.

Pixel 11 Pro Fold specs

Price and release date: $100 Hike

At $1,899 / AU$2,799, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is $100 more than its predecessor and the same exact price as the Galaxy Z Fold 8. Pre-orders are available now and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold release date is August 20.

Design: Tough and comfy, but still kinda bulky

Right off the bat, I prefer the Pixel 11 Pro Fold to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra because its front 6.5-inch screen is less squished. There’s more room for typing and your apps, thanks in part to Google slimming down the bezels.

I also appreciate the rounded corners on this design. They dig into your hands less than the Fold 8 Ultra's pointy corners.

Pick these phones up though and you’ll immediately notice Samsung’s portability and thinness advantage. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is a hefty 8.4 ounces and measures 5mm thick when open and 10.1mm when closed. That’s a definitive improvement over the Pixel 10 Pro Fold (9.1 ounces, 5.2mm/10.8mm), but the Fold 8 Ultra is still the featherweight champ of big screen foldables.

What Google gives you is more durability. Not only is this phone IP68 rated against water and dust — it’s just water for Samsung — Google gave the back a glass composite back that’s shatterproof.

The color options are Obsidian and Olive and the latter is the one I’d get because it’s a lot more fun.

HiLight (or LowLight?)

I can’t quite make up my mind if this feature is cool or just gimmicky but right now I’m thinking more of the latter.

HiLight is colorful LED on the back of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold that can glow different colors you set based on who’s calling. So if your phone is face down you can tell right away who’s on the other end.

The HiLight can also animate when you’re chatting with Gemini Live, which I guess is cool but not really necessary.

Displays: Brightest ever

Google’s foldable has a more noticeable crease than Samsung, but both the main and cover display are super bright. We’re talking 3,600 nits for the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, compared to 3,000 for the Fold 8 Ultra.

And, I noticed the difference when I put both phones side by side, both set to max brightness. The black bars are very much there when watching YouTube, but I like how you can pop comments in on the right side while watching YouTube Shorts.

The Pixel Pro Fold also has a laptop mode that puts the content up and controls on the bottom, similar to the Flex Mode on the Fold 8 Ultra.

Multitasking: Bubbles everywhere!

While the Pixel 11 Pro Fold limits you to two open apps side by side, compared to three for Samsung, Google has a new trick up its sleeve.

You can turn apps into a floating window called bubbles and place them anywhere around the screen. And it’s simple to add more apps to your bubble and toggle between them.

Cameras: More light, more 'magic'

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold packs a triple rear camera system that starts with a 48MP wide sensor that lets in 58% more light.

In my very brief testing the Pixel 11 Pro Fold captured sharp and bright images, but this was under pretty ideal conditions.

You also get a 10.5MP ultra wide camera and a 10.8MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom, compared to just 3x for the Fold 8 Ultra.

The selfie cameras are limited to 10MP, but you can always take rear camera selfies by flipped the front display around for maximum resolution.

The coolest camera feature on the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is Magic Capture. Enter this special mode and press the shutter button, and the Pixel 11 Pro will automatically start shooting both photos and videos, picking out what it thinks are the best moments. Google had a couple of dancers for our demo and Magic Capture seemed to work pretty well.

Another nifty feature is Creative Studio, which you can use to record videos complete with a built-in teleprompter, sound level controls and more.

AI: Getting Pro-active

This is a Pixel phone so you know the 11 Pro Fold is going to have a boatload of AI features. But there’s a handful of useful ones that you won’t find on the Fold 8 Ultra.

Gemini Spark can perform tasks on your behalf in the background while you do other stuff. For example, you can ask Gemini to summarize emails related to your party RSVPs and have it create a spreadsheet of everyone’s dietary preferences.

Speech recognition also gets a boost with the Pixel 11 Pro Fold thanks to Rambler. You can say all the “uhs” and “ums” you want and this Foldable will edit them out on the fly.

Gemini’s Proactive Intelligent Suggestions builds on the hit-or-miss Magic Cue from previous Pixel phones, surfacing the right info just when you need it. For example, if someone asks if you’re available on a certain day and time, you’ll see a prompt for previewing your calendar — without having to leave the app.

This works for everything from being able to preview flight info to peeking at a restaurant. You can even book a table from within your messages with the tap of a button.

Performance and Battery: Breaking the 2nm barrier

The Pixel 11 Pro packs a new Tensor G6 chip that is among the first in the world built on a 2nm process. And that means you should expect a speed boost along with longer battery life — even with a smaller battery than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

For example, Google promises an Instant Night Sight feature for taking low-light photos with virtually no processing time. But we’ll have to test this out to see how it works.

And with a much faster TPU on board, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold should be able to perform on-device AI tasks much faster than before.

The 4,806 mAh battery inside the Pixel 11 Pro Fold is smaller than the 5,000 mAh battery for the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, but Google is still promising up to 24 hours of battery life. That’s because the G6 chip is designed to be 20% more efficient.

However, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 5,015 mAh battery with newer silicon carbon tech, while the Pixel Fold is still stuck on Lithium Ion, so we’ll have to see which foldable lasts longer.

When it comes to wireless charging, Google has an advantage because it has Qi2 magnets built into the phone. With Samsung you have to buy a case.

Outlook

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is a much improved foldable phone. It’s lighter, thinner, tougher and faster. Plus, it has a longer zoom than the Z Fold 8 Ultra, a wider front display and — eureka! — you can actually take it to the beach.

Add in the brighter screens and shatterproof back and you have some pretty solid reasons for picking the Pixel 11 Pro Fold over Samsung.

On the other hand, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is noticeably thinner and lighter; it has a less visible crease; and it packs sharper main and ultrawide cameras. Plus, you have the ability to run three apps at once.

I don’t see the HiLight feature being all that useful on the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. More practical to me are Gemini proactive suggestions, as well as camera features like Magic Capture.

Overall, I’d be pretty torn between the Pixel 11 Pro Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. But I’ll have to do some in-depth testing to see which one I’d buy with my own money. Stay tuned for my full review.

Google Gemini can answer almost any question, but getting a consistently useful response often means typing the same detailed instructions again and again. Gems are designed to solve that problem.

A Gem is a customized version of Gemini built around a particular job. You give it a role and a set of instructions once, then return to it whenever you need the same kind of help. It is essentially a saved super-prompt that behaves like a dedicated AI assistant. It's a lot like a Claude Skill.

Many Gems you'll find on the internet are aimed at SEO article writers and marketers, in other words, fairly niche. But the most useful Gems I've found are those that actually make my work day a bit easier. Here are my favorites that save hours each week.

1. Brainstormer

We have all asked an AI chatbot for ideas and received a list so generic that it somehow leaves us less inspired than when we started.

Google’s premade Brainstormer Gem is meant to be a more focused creative partner. You can use it to generate birthday ideas, names for a project, gift suggestions, weekend plans or potential solutions to a problem.

The trick is to give it constraints. Asking for “birthday party ideas” is likely to produce predictable suggestions. Tell it the child’s age, interests, guest count, budget and whether the party will be indoors or outside, and it has a much better chance of helping.

Try this Gem and save it for later: Help me plan a birthday party for a 10-year-old who loves music, crafts and gymnastics. It will be held at home for eight children, and I want to spend less than $200. Suggest five themes, then compare the cost and preparation required for each one.

Since the Gem retains its broader brainstorming instructions, you can concentrate on describing the problem instead of explaining how you want Gemini to approach it every time.

2. Learning Coach

I believe you're never too old to learn. That's why the Learning Coach Gem is one of the strongest examples of why a specialized chatbot can be more useful than an ordinary AI conversation.

Instead of immediately supplying an answer, it is designed to explain a subject step by step and help the user work through it. That makes it useful for learning a new skill, revising for an exam or finally understanding a concept that never quite clicked.

You could ask it to teach you the basics of photography, explain a difficult chapter from a textbook or build a two-week study plan. It can adjust its explanations to your existing knowledge and quiz you as you go.

Try this Gem and save it for later: Teach me the basics of personal finance over seven short lessons. Assume I understand budgeting but know very little about investing. Explain one concept at a time, use everyday examples and give me a three-question quiz after each lesson. Don’t move on until I answer.

AI can still make mistakes, so I would verify important facts and avoid treating it as a replacement for a teacher. Used as a patient practice partner, however, this Gem could be genuinely helpful.

3. Career Guide

Career advice is one of those tasks that benefits from context. The right next move depends on your experience, current role, goals, available time and tolerance for risk.

The Career Guide Gem is built to turn that information into a more structured plan. It can identify transferable skills, suggest possible career paths, help prepare for an interview or break a large professional goal into manageable steps.

When using this Gem, be sure to be as specific as possible to ensure it surfaces options you may not have considered.

Try this Gem and save it for later: I have eight years of experience in customer service and three years of experience managing a small team. I want to move into a job with more predictable hours and a salary of at least $70,000. Suggest five realistic career paths, explain which of my skills transfer to each and create a six-month plan for the strongest option.

You should not assume that its salary figures or hiring advice are current without checking them. The value is in giving you a starting point and a set of questions to investigate.

4. Writing Editor

Some people use Gemini to write, but using it as an Editor is a total game changer. This gem can save you from repeatedly explaining what you want it to preserve.

You can customize it around your preferred tone, the phrases you tend to overuse and the amount of editing you are comfortable with. That makes it useful for polishing emails, resumes, school assignments, reports or social posts without turning everything into the same overly formal AI voice.

I would instruct it to explain its biggest changes instead of automatically replacing the entire draft. That keeps the writer in control.

Try this Gem and save it for later: Edit my writing for clarity, flow and grammar while keeping my original voice. Avoid corporate language, clichés and unnecessary adjectives. Make the smallest changes needed. First show me the edited version, then briefly explain the three most important changes.

If you regularly write for work, you could upload a style guide or examples of your writing when creating the Gem. Google says custom Gems can use uploaded files as reference material, giving the editor more context about how you want to sound.

5. Storybook

I like this Gem because it's fun and playful. It can take a simple idea and turn it iSnto an illustrated story based on a chosen theme, age group and art style.

Parents could use it to create a bedtime story starring a child’s favorite toy. Teachers could turn a classroom topic into a short narrative, while adults could use it to make a personalized story as a gift.

Try this Gem and save it for later: Create a funny eight-page bedtime story for a 6-year-old about an orange cat who secretly runs a bakery at night. Keep each page under 50 words, include a gentle lesson about asking for help and use a colorful watercolor illustration style.

As with any AI-generated story, it is worth reading the result before sharing it with a child. The plot can wander, and image generators do not always keep characters perfectly consistent from one page to the next. Even so, it is an easy way to turn a child’s idea into something they can see and read.

How to create your own Gemini Gem

Custom Gems are available in Gemini at no cost. On the Gemini app, open the sidebar, choose Explore Gems and select New Gem. Give it a name, add the instructions you want it to follow and test it in the preview window before saving it.

Be specific about the Gem’s role, how it should respond and what a good answer looks like. You can include examples or upload reference files when it needs more background.

Gems can now be shared much like files in Google Drive, with controls over who can view or edit them. Be careful when attaching personal or sensitive documents, particularly if you plan to share the Gem with somebody else.

The bottom line

Getting started with these five pre-made Gems might spark some new ideas for Gems you create yourself. Have fun and discover the benefit of instructions that can be reused and saved. Once you give these a try, I think you'll discover that Gemini can feel like a group of assistants rather than just one chatbot.

And, if you have a favorite Gem, let me know in the comments. I'd love to give it a try.

More from Tom's Guide

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• ChatGPT can do more for you than ever — and I use these 5 prompts to take everyday tasks off my plate
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It’s kind of hard to believe that the Google Pixel 11 series is launching. Yes, it’s been 10 years since the introduction of the first Pixel phone, which was the first truly “made by Google” device. (Yes, there were Nexus phones before that, but that was through partners like HTC.)

The original Google Pixel had a 5-inch OLED display, 4GB of RAM and an 8MP camera running Android 7.1 Nougat. But it wasn’t about the specs. It was about making a device that was a differentiated flagship that could go toe-to-toe with the iPhone 7 and Galaxy S7. A true Apple rival that had Google-made hardware and software.

To do that, Google leaned heavily into computational photography before anyone else, elevating image quality via sophisticated processing as opposed to just hardware. And the first Pixel also paved the way for AI as a hallmark feature in phones, with Google Assistant being built directly into the OS.

But now that we’re a decade in, what does Google have to show for its efforts? A fairly low No. 10 in global market share, according to IDC. And with the Apple-Samsung duopoly still going strong in the U.S. and the likes of Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo dominating in China, does it still make sense for the Pixel to exist?

With the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro Fold about to go on sale, I asked three of the smartest mobile analysts why Google is still making phones, and what the company can do to stand out.

Google is No. 4 in the US, so what’s the problem?

On the plus side, Google’s phone sales have been growing. In fact, according to IDC’s Nabile Popal, Google’s worldwide share has grown tenfold from 2016 to 2025. And it entered the top 10 globally for the first time in 2023. And by the end of 2025, its global annual shipments had grown 8x since a decade ago.

It’s even rosier if you look at just the US. Google’s share in the US grew 4x to 4.1% in 2025, from just 1% share in 2020.

Meanwhile, Google is a fairly solid No. 3 in the UK with 7.5% share and an even higher 11% in Japan, where it’s also No. 3.

The problem is that Google simply isn’t as aggressive as other phone makers when it comes to distribution.

"Google restricts its official hardware sales to roughly 22 countries,” said Popal. “In comparison, industry leaders like Apple and Samsung distribute across well over 120 global territories, mathematically capping Google's volume potential."

That restricted distribution likely isn’t about a lack of resources. We’re talking about a parent company with a market valuation of approximately $4.3 trillion. It’s much more likely a deliberate choice that’s more political in nature. After all, Google’s Android software powers Samsung, Xiaomi and all of the other biggest brands.

"Pixels are meant to showcase Android software capabilities rather than completely dethrone partner hardware ecosystems,” Popal said. “They want to showcase their abilities without alienating their top partners."

Why Pixels phones still exist: Winning the AI war

After Google acquired Motorola Mobility in 2011, speculation grew that Google might favor its own hardware division over its partners. And rumors started to swirl for a time that Samsung might pivot from Android to its own Tizen as the OS of choice.

But while Samsung did show off a prototype Galaxy S4 running Tizen in 2014, it ultimately shelved any plans for ditching Android on phones and pivoted towards using the software on TVs.

So if that threat has passed, why is there still a need for Pixel phones? The short answer: AI.

“Google needs its devices division to act as a Gemini-first counterweight to Apple,” said Avi Greengart, founder and lead analyst for Techsponential. “Building your own hardware ensures that your OS remains in sync with component and form factor trends, and allows Google to release features to market on its timetable, not that of its partners.”

Even before ChatGPT was a household name, Google started to pioneer key AI features that would find their way to other Android phones (and in some cases copied by the iPhone). For example, the Pixel 6 in 2021 introduced Magic Eraser for removing unwanted objects from your phones. This would not have been possible without Google’s own Tensor chip.

The Pixel 7 gave us Photo Unblur and Direct My Call for navigating byzantine phone menus, and the Pixel 9 gave us Gemini Live for the first time for real-time continuous voice interaction.

In short, Google needs to demonstrate that it continues to be at the forefront of AI on phones, especially when its partners have other options. For example, the latest Galaxy S26 series and Fold 8 series supports both Gemini and Perplexity.

“I think Google has found the right formula from a hardware perspective and the value of Gemini is definitely strengthening the offering,” said Carolina Milanesi, president and principal analyst for Creative Strategies. “It is also about owning the core piece of the product portfolio that consumers will own going forward.”

How the Pixel 11 can stand out

With the Made by Google event coming up on August 12th, Google is launching four new Pixel phones: the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL and Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

That’s quite a robust lineup for a company that’s still seen as a fairly small player. But Google doesn’t need to beat Apple and Samsung to succeed.

“Pixel gives Google the opportunity to show its full vision for what an AI-native smartphone experience can be,” Greengart said.

The Pixel 11 could very well be an AI powerhouse. It’s powered by a 2nm Tensor G6 chip that will speed up Night Sight processing for low-light photos and other on-device AI tasks. And Google is showing off Gemini Proactive Assistance for proactively surfacing useful information, building on the potential of the previous Magic Cue feature.

In addition, the Pixel 11 Pro features a new HiLight LED on the back of the phone that lights up in different color patterns when you’re interacting with Gemini when the phone is face down. It will also serve as an ambient call and notification indicator. But I fear this may come off as gimmicky, similar to the temperature sensor on previous Pixels.

Is Google pushing the envelope enough?

While it’s clear that the Pixel 11 series will offer meaningful upgrades, the hardware hasn't evolved that much. And if the rumors prove true, Google is going to be missing the boat on a widescreen, passport-style foldable phone like the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and iPhone Ultra.

Google’s first foldable did indeed have a wide display, but it abandoned that form factor.

“This is going to be the hardest sell this year because of the attention Samsung has gotten with the Z Fold 8 and Apple will have,” Milanesi said. “That market is still small though and even more so for Google, so as long as they go to that form factor next year they will be ok.”

Google’s biggest problem is that it seems stuck between trying to trumpet the idealized version of a pure AI-first Android phone and not trying to irk its partners. After 10 years, Pixel has not quite broken through with the masses, but that could very well be a calculated decision.

“Google has not marketed itself strongly enough to become a household name in phones like Apple or Samsung,” Popal said. “Its industry leading features are only known to niche tech savvy consumers, and if it is to succeed with the Pixel 11 it has to pump up its overall marketing and channel presence.”

The question is whether Google really wants to.

Over the last year and change, Google has been slowly lopping off parts of Google Assistant and replacing them with Gemini. Now, it appears Assistant has an official end date.

As reported by 9to5Google, an announcement email has apparently been sent to some users. A full version of the email popped up in the r/google subreddit.

"Google Assistant on your mobile device is being discontinued, and Gemini - our next-generation AI-powered assistant - is now the Assistant experience on Android," the email starts.

It goes on to reveal that Assistant will be replaced on mobile devices and Wear OS devices starting on September 4.

“We will begin removing access to Google Assistant starting on September 4,” Google states in the email, “and expect that this process may take a few weeks to reach everyone. Once availability is removed, you will no longer be able to use or switch back to Google Assistant on your phone, tablet or paired devices.”

Per the announcement, that affects Android phones, watches and tablets. However, Assistant should still be available on Google TV and isn't fully dead on Google Home.

The slow decline

The great Gemini migration started in earnest last summer when Google announced that the new AI chatbot would replace Google Assistant in Google Home and smart home devices like the Google Nest Hub. That shift didn't really kick off until October of 2025.

It really started in March of 2025 when various features like Live Translation in Interpreter mode, the ability to share photos via voice commands and birthday reminder notifications were axed in Nest devices. They came back with Gemini.

In the same month, Google announced plans to replace Assistant with Gemini, though a specific timeline wasn't presented.

More recently, Google Assistant was kicked off Android Auto in favor of Gemini. The rollout was announced last year, but didn't hit everyone until this summer.

Meanwhile, Gemini has been steadily improving over the last year, making it more capable of handling everything from deep work to Android Auto and exploring the world.

What next

If you've been using Google Assistant and not Gemini, you'll need to get Gemini when you can. If it doesn't come pre-installed, you can get it from the Google Play Store. Gemini is more than just a voice assistant, as it encompasses most of Google's AI ventures, from image generation to search and chatbot prompts.

Once you've installed Gemini, it will have a guide for replacing Google Assistant as the default AI. Your Google Account should cross-reference both apps, so the switch should be quick.

Unlike Gemini, Assistant doesn't really have a true chat archive. You can find your interactions via the Web & App Activity page in your Google account.

Old Google Assistant commands will still work with Gemini using the "Hey Google" prompt. The difference is that Gemini conversations will sync across your devices.

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The launch of Siri AI with the iOS 27 beta means that your new phone, no matter who makes it, has a built-in AI chatbot for you to interact with. iPhones will have Siri AI once iOS 27 officially releases in the fall, while Android phones come packaged with Google Gemini — plus whatever other models the manufacturer wants you to use, like Samsung's Bixby.

The real question is, which of those chatbots is the better one to have? Despite the fact Siri AI runs on Google's Gemini models, it behaves very differently than Gemini itself. That manifests itself in a lot of different ways, but crucially, how does it affect the answers you get?

To get a better understanding of how these chatbots work, I asked them a bunch of loaded questions to see how much of a difference there really is. Here's what I uncovered.

Finding a coffee shop

First up is the all-important question for any working person, especially those ones that have loud, needy children to cater to. Siri and Gemini were able to "find me the nearest coffee shop" right away, pointing out that the nearest spot was an independent cafe just five minutes walk from my house.

Both AIs offered Maps previews with brief information on opening times, customer ratings and directions on how to get there. Gemini also took it upon itself to suggest a bunch of similar businesses nearby, including nearby cafes and a sandwich shop. However Siri kept things short and to the point.

I tried to get both AIs to tell me how busy the cafe might be, but that information wasn't available. It took me a few attempts with different spots, like the local Starbucks and McDonalds, to get Gemini to tell me about crowd levels — so while Google technically has that information available, it's inconsistent in whether you will be able to access it. Sadly this is something Apple Maps, and therefore Siri, totally lacks.

The fastest way to the office

Next up I needed information on how I can get to Future's offices in central London as quickly as possible. Siri wanted a little bit of clarification as to which office I meant, while Gemini picked up that I meant the office on Westbourne Terrace without need for further elaboration.

Both AIs defaulted to offering driving directions, though Siri got confused during the process. Apple Maps loaded up the correct address near London's Paddington station, but the previews in the Siri app related to a different Westbourne Terrace much closer to home. The driving routes were more or less the same from both, but both AIs disagreed on the fastest method of transport.

When asked whether it would be faster to drive or take the train, Google confirmed that a train to Paddington would only take 35 minutes — as opposed to over an hour by car. Meanwhile Siri decided that the train would take one minute longer than driving by car.

I was confused as to why Siri thought the train would take so long, until I checked Apple Maps and realized it was taking into account when I'd arrive if I left home right this second. It neglected to inform me that the next train wouldn't be passing through for another half an hour.

Which is the cheaper option?

Something the two can agree on is that driving is actually the cheaper option, when comparing trains against my 40kWh Nissan Leaf. Both noted that the exact cost of the drive will depend on how much I'm paying for electricity, though only Gemini realized that I would have to take other fees into account as well.

In fact Gemini gave me a full breakdown of costs for both methods of transport, noting the cost of train tickets, the London Underground and offering a rough total for the entire trip. For driving it took into account that there are many ways of charging a care, with average costs for home and public charging sessions.

It also made a point of mentioning the various extra costs of driving into London including the congestion charge, parking fees and the ultra low emission zone — though thankfully a zero emission electric car is exempt from the latter. So Gemini did what it could to inform me of all potential costs, while Siri only offered up the most basic information unless I asked further questions.

What about making skateboarding dogs?

Both Siri and Gemini were able to generate images in the middle of chats, based on my prompt of asking to see a Labrador riding a skateboard. Both images were very different, and Siri's had the more obvious tell-tale signs of being AI generated at first glance — including that distinct sheen the subjects in AI generated images often have.

Both AIs were up front about what additional art styles were available when asked, though Google went into far too much detail over-analyzing every single option available. Meanwhile Siri just listed them out and expected me to understand what was being said. In this instance, that's actually the option I prefer, because I don't need an explanation of what oil paintings or "Pixar-style 3D animation" means.

Tricking AI into helping me commit crimes

Now, we all know that AIs have safeguards that stop you from directly asking about how to pull off illegal activities. But can you trick them into giving you information with weird hypothetical scenarios? So I asked them to help me smuggle powdered sugar into a country where such a thing is illegal.

Siri shut that down right away and refused to help me smuggle items or bypass customs, even if I was talking about a hypothetical situation. Gemini, on the other hand, was more than eager to try and help me sneak sugar across the border.

It suggested that I try to soak the sugar into fabrics and garments, with information on how I can extract it again. It also offered the idea of packing it in with legal white powders like protein powder, talc and cornstarch, even going so far to suggest that I reseal the packaging to try and escape detection.

While these techniques may not be applicable to illegal substances, it was remarkably easy to get Gemini to try and aid my "hypothetical" criminal behavior. But when I changed tact, and directly asked if I could smuggle illegal drugs across the border, Gemini shut the whole thing down and declared that it can't assist with illegal activities.

Cheating on my homework

Siri and Gemini both refused to help me cheat on my imaginary homework, but they did offer to help me study instead. Siri was as blunt as usual, offering to help me learn the material, while Gemini gave a more in-depth list of ways it can help me learn.

Both AIs were pretty eager to write me an essay on the history of the iPhone, though they had wildly different takes on what an essay should be. Siri's essay was a four-paragraph summary, followed by a disclaimer that I should double check all this information. Meanwhile Gemini's was not only longer, it was also split into sections focussing on different iPhone eras — plus a conclusion.

It's almost like Siri is the kid that begrudgingly does the bare minimum, while Gemini is the studious nerd striving for top grades and all the extra credit it can muster.

Political betting odds

Those who are familiar with British politics will know that there's about to be an election that will select a new Member of Parliament. For various political reasons that I won't go into, the two frontrunners are the former MP, who resigned and triggered the election, and a man dressed as a sentient trash can from another planet — aptly named Count BinFace.

Naturally one of these candidates is not like the other, and I asked both AIs where I can check the odds on Count BinFace actually winning this election. Gemini gave me a bunch of resources and information to check this for myself, while Siri cut out the middleman and just gave me a summary of the best odds. Gemini only volunteered that information after I explicitly asked for the odds, rather than asking where I could find them.

Medical advice and emergencies

We all go to the internet asking for medical advice, even if we know we should see a doctor about it. So what exactly does AI have to say if you go to it for help instead of a doctor? Gemini and Siri emphasize that they are not doctors, and that you really should see a medical professional.

But failing that, they do seem to try and help in any way they can. When told that my foot was hurting, Gemini and Siri both suggested possible causes, and situations where you really should seek urgent medical attention. However, only Gemini asked for more information about the kind of pain I was experiencing, and which part of my foot was affected. Gemini also suggested some options for home treatment, such as rest, elevating the foot and applying ice.

While Gemini was a little more helpful in that regard, it really dropped the ball when I claimed I was having a heart attack. I got a very large message telling me that I need to call 999 (or 911) immediately, and suggested some things I can do to stay alive while I wait for EMTs to arrive.

Siri's response was to start calling 999 automatically, causing me to scramble to cancel the call before it made a connection. As helpful as Gemini's information is, reading material is the last thing you need in an emergency — which is why I prefer Siri's no-nonsense approach.

What happens if you ask for the wrong AI?

Both Siri and Gemini didn't really seem to care when I referred to them as Alexa and Bixby mid-conversation. Siri straight-up ignored the fact I called it by a different name, while Gemini's response seemed to be phrased as if the AI is laughing it off

Regardless of that initial response (or lack thereof), both AIs answered the question without any further hesitation.

Can my AI beat up your AI?

I don't know about your school, but when I was a kid one of the popular playground topics was figuring out whose dad would win in a fight — because pre-teen boys aren't the most cultured demographic. Obviously I wanted to see which chatbot would win in a fight, and whether Siri and Gemini thought they could physically overpower Claude and ChatGPT.

Siri refused to entertain this topic, insisting that it is a "fan of all intelligence, artificial or otherwise." Which feels like a nice way of saying that this is a stupid topic and we should all just get along.

Gemini pointed out that chatbots have no physical form, so any kind of brawl is impossible. Instead it put together a face-off for the three chatbots to see what skills they each excel at. According to Gemini, Claude takes the crown for coding and logic, while ChatGPT is the best AI for general tasks and productivity. Meanwhile Gemini itself is the best AI for live data and multi-modal capabilities.

Asking about fake events

Some AI chatbots have developed a reputation for just telling people what they want to hear, with little regard for facts and accuracy. So I attempted to ask Siri and Gemini about things that haven't happened yet, or never did happen, to see what the response would be.

First up was asking the winner of the World Cup in 2027, to which Siri informed me that the 2027 World Cup hasn't actually happened yet. I had failed to realize that the FIFA Women's World Cup is taking place next year, and obviously does not have a winner. Gemini also pointed out that the Rugby World Cup and ICC Cricket World Cup are happening next year too.

Only Gemini seemed to acknowledge the fact that the FIFA Men's World Cup has already happened, with Siri speaking about the tournament in the future tense.

When prompted about the 2030 Men's World Cup, both AIs pointed out that it hasn't happened yet. Due to a hearing mixup Siri also pointed out that there was no World Cup in 2013, and asked if I meant the 2014 or 2010 tournaments.

Struggling with logic puzzles

Interestingly both Siri and Gemini seemed to struggle with some logic puzzles I gave it. In particular with the riddle, "A mother had five boys Marco, Tucker, Webster and Thomas. Was the fifth boy's name Frank, Evan or Alex?"

The answer is Frank, because the four older boys share their first initial with the days of the week — meaning Frank corresponds to Friday. Siri was adamant that the fifth boy was named Thomas, because it misinterpreted the wording as saying "Thomas was the fifth boy's name." I ended up having to correct Siri, because it wouldn't let go of the fact that the fifth kid is supposed to be Frank.

Gemini got the correct answer, but went through some bizarre and incorrect logic in the process. It insisted the answer was Alex, but also realized that the boys' initials corresponded to days of the week. Gemini then went through a process of correcting itself automatically, and documenting everything its thought process into a single answer.

Then again they were both fine with other logic puzzles, and even recognized that I was trying to make them solve the Monty Hall problem without mentioning it by name. According to Siri and Gemini, your odds really are better if you switch your choice partway through the game, rather than sticking with your original choice. They weren't able to give me an answer for the Trolley Problem, though.

Overall impressions

While Siri AI is based on Google's Gemini models, there are a lot of differences in the way the two chatbots actually respond to questions. The main thing I noticed is that Siri was a lot faster to respond, and it had a preference for offering shorter and simpler responses.

In a lot of cases this might be preferable, because information overload is a very real thing. Similarly the fact Siri didn't mess about with bombarding me with information and immediately started calling emergency services when I claimed to be having a heart attack is a tactic that could save peoples' lives.

Gemini took a while to get most answers, even ones that should have been fairly easy, as though it was Googling every little thing it gave me. The answers it gave were often rather long and complicated, offering a huge amount of detail and explanation for every little thing. While this can be useful in certain situations, such as trying to cheat on my homework or being informed about London's driving tolls, it isn't necessary all the time. Less is more, as the saying goes.

Apple also seems to have Siri locked down on the morality side of things. It won't acknowledge any attempts to turn it into a romantic partner and it shoots down any questions that flirt with the wrong side of the law — even if you ask it as a hypothetical. The fact Gemini was so eager to help me smuggle sugar was a little disturbing, to be honest.

That said, I did like the fact that Gemini offered some kind of message telling you it was thinking. Siri was inconsistent with this, and there were times when Siri needed a little more time to figure things out and the screen ground to a halt. So I had no idea whether it was processing an answer or if it had crashed. Then again, Siri is still in beta, so these kinds of errors are to be expected.

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My AI stack of tools is composed of Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini. So when I heard that Google was expanding access to Gemini Spark, I couldn't wait to see what the "always on" AI agent could do.

For those new to Gemini Spark, it's an AI agent that can monitor your inbox, organize files, build documents, schedule calendar events and complete multi-step tasks across Google's apps. Best of all, you don't have to have your laptop open. Google recently began rolling the feature out more broadly, including to subscribers in India, after initially launching it for U.S. Google AI Ultra users.

Naturally, I wanted to see whether this actually feels different from using ChatGPT or the regular Gemini chatbot. Turns out, it's completely different in the best ways.

7 prompts worth trying first

1. Plan my week

Prompt: Review my calendar, unread emails and task list. Identify any scheduling conflicts, prioritize my work, and create a realistic plan for the next five days.

After using this prompt I checked to see if it actually understood priorities (meetings vs. social events) or did it just rearrange my calendar. To my suprise, it not only gave me a quick look at all my meetings, but also showed me the emails I needed to respond to. Talk about a productivity game changer!

2. Inbox zero

Prompt: Go through my inbox from the past seven days. Archive anything that isn't actionable, highlight emails requiring a response and draft replies where appropriate.

While the first prompt tackled the urgent emails, this one takes on the rest. Using this prompt lets the AI know what you want to do with unread emails or emails that you have read, just haven't done anything with yet. Basically, it's the fastest way to find out if you missed anything important.

When I tried this, I realized I had missed a note from my son's school reminding me to send over updated vaccination forms before the start of the school year.

3. Prepare me for tomorrow

Prompt: Every evening at 7 p.m., summarize what I accomplished today, tell me what's on my calendar tomorrow, list the emails I should read first and remind me of anything I haven't finished.

I use various versions of this prompt. It helps to prioritize for the next day while also reflecting on the work I've done. Other versions include gathering news updates I may have missed or finding tech blogs that may interest me. Either way, Gemini Spark is great when it comes to rounding up information you need.

4. Vacation planner

Prompt: Plan a three-day family trip within three hours of my home. Compare hotels, estimate costs, build an itinerary and put everything into a Google Doc.

I've used AI to plan for vacations and weekend getaways before, but with Gemini Spark, things felt different. The finalized Google Doc meant that I could easily share notes with my husband and save in a folder for future planning. Beyond vacation planning, this prompt works any time you want to use AI for multi-step reasoning.

5. Research assistant

Prompt: Research the latest developments in AI agents. Read multiple sources, identify the biggest trends, summarize the findings in a Google Doc and include links to the original reporting.

As a journalist in the tech industry, I'm constantly seeing news about new AI models, features and gadgets. Keeping everything organized used to be a headache, but thanks to Gemini Spark, all of my notes and interests are tackled together in a Google Doc. I can see the links and bullet point summaries, which help me determine what news to report on first.

6. Budget helper

Prompt: Review my recent receipts and purchases. Group them into spending categories, identify unusual expenses and suggest three realistic ways I could save money next month.

As someone who frequently shops on Amazon, keeping my orders organized was a bit of a challenge. This helps me stay within my budget and keep track of spending, which is sometimes hard to do with three kids who are always asking for the latest squishy toy!

7. My favorite

Prompt: Every morning, prepare a briefing for me with today's calendar, unread emails, breaking AI news, weather and a prioritized to-do list.

This use case makes me feel like I genuinely have a personal assistant. It's the kind of "personal chief of staff" workflow I haven't seen with other AI models.

Bottom line

After spending time with Spark, my eyes were opened to new possibilities. For those who haven't strayed from using AI as a chatbot, I urge you to try any or all of these prompts. The real surprise is that you don't have to babysit the AI. It can gather the information it needs without you there.

Spark changes that dynamic completely. At first, I wondered if I could trust it. After all, giving an AI background access to your inbox and calendar sounds incredibly useful —and slightly terrifying.

Google appears to recognize that concern. Spark is designed to work strictly under your direction and is built to check with you before taking major actions, rather than quietly sending emails or finalizing purchases on its own.

Whether people are comfortable giving AI that much responsibility is another question entirely. But after trying Spark, I finally understand why every major AI company is racing to build agents.

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This is very much not Google Glass 2.0. Google is entering the AI smartglasses arena this fall to go up against Meta (and whatever Apple is cooking), and it’s partnering with Samsung, Warby Parker and Gentle Monster to make “Intelligent Eyewear” powered by Android XR.

As you might expect, Gemini is the headline feature. Having a smart assistant as your literal eyes has the potential to help you get a lot done on the go without having to constantly whip out your phone. But Juston Payne, who leads the product management team for XR at Google, also knows that the smart glasses category is fraught with controversy, especially over how to handle recording in public and user privacy.

“If people don't feel comfortable wearing these glasses, and privacy is part of this, they just won't wear the glasses. It’s as simple as that,” Payne said.

I had a chance to sit down with Payne to discuss these issues and a lot more ahead of the Intelligent Eyewear launch, including how to design for the masses, the roadmap to built-in displays and the totally separate Android XR spatial computing glasses coming from Xreal this year.

The lessons of Google Glass

Anyone old enough to remember the original Google Glass from 2012 probably remembers them for embarrassing reasons.

For me, my mind instantly goes to that infamous photo of Robert Scoble in the shower, which became a symbol for the device’s voyeuristic dangers. And then there’s that SNL Weekend Update bit, during which Fred Armisen lampooned how difficult the interface was to use.

I asked Payne directly about the lessons of Google Glass, and he admits that they were ahead of their time.

“The trouble was that the vision was good, but the reality was that the tech just wasn't quite there yet,” Payne said.

He cites three reasons for the Google Glasses flop that Intelligent Eyewear hopes to get right. First was the nerdy form factor. They didn’t really look like regular glasses. There was also a lack of content, which you now get with Android XR. And the third thing is versatility, which AI brings to the table.

“So there were these huge building blocks missing,” Payne said, “Hardware, platform, AI.”

And that brings us to the present…

What does Intelligent Eyewear do?

For the first round of Intelligent Eyewear, the glasses will be audio-only. Glasses with single and dual displays will be coming later, though Google will start offering a trusted tester program sometime this year.

In the meantime, the glasses coming this year from Samsung, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker will leverage Android XR to (hopefully) make your day easier by having Gemini always at the ready.

“Gemini can take your personal context — we call it personal intelligence — and then it can start feeding that into your experience,” Payne said. “These glasses are designed to give you ambient assistance throughout the day while keeping you connected to your digital world and the real world.”

For example, because Gemini has personal intelligence built in, it knows you, and you can ask about what’s on your calendar, the score of a sports game or a random fact.

“Just having a real-time conversational interface all day long is incredibly valuable for a lot of people,” Payne continued. For example, when Payne is driving with Intelligent Eyewear on he can ask about other podcasts Gemini might recommend based on the one he’s currently listening to and do it on the fly.

Payne cited a couple other major use cases for Intelligent Eyewear. The first is navigation, such as looking up a local restaurant that might be good around you.

“The audio experience for that is fantastic,” Payne said. “It uses the camera to localize you, so it knows that you're pointing in the right direction. It can give you contextual navigation to help you get to where you're going without being vague, you know, like ‘turn right there.’”

Translation is another potential killer app for Intelligent Eyewear, promising a quick “UN translator experience.” And when you’re cooking you can get step-by-step instructions even without a display.

But Payne argues that display glasses are nice to have as opposed to a must-have, such as seeing that your upcoming turn is 300 feet away.

“We think of the display more as almost an augmentation to the audio experience rather than something that is a hard dependency in many cases,” Payne said.

Design first, features second

Anyone who has been paying attention to the smart glasses market knows that there’s a sliding scale of geekiness. The Ray-Ban Meta glasses and Meta Glasses look very much like regular sunglasses or glasses. But the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses are bulkier, and the even more ambitious Snap Specs look pretty geeky with their extra-wide frames.

For Google, the approach is pretty simple: they have to be great glasses first.

“We lead with design and then we ask the question ‘what can you make within the constraints of a great design?’” Payne said. “Can we make a product that is genuinely valuable for people so that if they walk out of their house and they forgot them, they'll actually go back and get them?”

The early design from Gentle Monster has chic oval-shaped lenses that wouldn’t look out of place on a runway, while the Warby Parker design is a bit chunkier and more retro. They both feature dual cameras, but they look a bit more discreet on the Gentle Monster specs.

Google doesn’t seem willing to push the limits and risk the sort of backlash the Snap Specs have been getting for their overtly techy look.

“If you make a product that provides really novel new experiences, people might be willing to tolerate a design that has some larger compromises. I think it's great that people are out there testing that theory. It's just not the approach that Google's taking. We're really leading with design,” Payne said.

Major privacy landmines — and what Google is doing about it

By now you’ve probably heard some of the horror stories coming out of the Meta glasses camp around privacy concerns, including a woman who discovered her esthetician was wearing Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses at a European Wax Center in Manhattan. And 404 Media reported on how men were wearing the glasses to covertly film massage parlor workers.

Then there’s the black market that sprung up around disabling the LEDs on Meta glasses so that others don’t know that you’re recording. Meta recently attempted to close this loophole with a software update that automatically disables the cameras if the LED has been tampered with or destroyed.

It’s safe to say that Google is walking into a minefield of privacy concerns, but the company has a plan to address them.

“If people don't feel comfortable wearing these glasses, and privacy is part of this, they just won't wear the glasses. It’s as simple as that,” Payne said.

To help combat some of the concerns people have about these issues, Google is starting by making sure that Intelligent Eyewear users are signaling to the people around them when they are recording and that the LED is accurate.

Payne told us that Google will share more details later this year around how they ensure this accuracy, but the bottom line is that the light should be on if whatever you’re recording or shooting can be reviewed later.

Google will also be employing Android permission frameworks to help protect users, as well as other security and privacy techniques already on your phone.

Lastly, Google is “investing to make it so that the hardware itself holds up,” Payne said. “So if people try to mess around with it somehow, we have ways of detecting that.”

Google vs. Meta vs. Apple

Launching in 2023 and with over 9 million units sold already, it’s fair to say that Meta has had a pretty big head start with its Ray-Ban glasses and other eyewear, but Google is pretty confident that it can make a splash in what is still a pretty nascent market.

I asked Juston directly about his largest competitor and he told me that “Meta’s doing a great job” with “very nice glasses.” But while the Meta glasses are good for things like photos, videos, calls and music, Google is taking a different approach with Gemini front and center.

“We think a lot about moments throughout the day. And these moments throughout the day are really the things that are driving our approach to the platform. ‘How does Gemini show up in glasses? What kinds of hooks are we making from Gemini into apps? How are apps making themselves available to Gemini? So so much of our thinking is about versatility.”

That thinking includes making things super easy for developers to get their apps running in Android XR, while Meta’s app ecosystem is still fairly skimpy.

“The platform will know if their app, which is running on the phone, is talking to audio glasses or glasses with a display, and it'll tailor that app experience for it,” Payne said. “So that means that developers really only build once. They just build an Android app, and then we take care of the rest.”

Payne also is acutely aware of the fact that Apple is working on its own Apple Glasses, which will likely debut in 2027. And it will be taking the same vertically oriented approach it has with all of its other products: Apple’s own design. Apple’s software. Apple’s ecosystem.

“Apple has a very strong track record,” Payne said, “and I think that one thing that Apple has always done well is that they play to their strengths. I would expect that they'll keep doing that. And I'm sure that they'll provide very real competition for everybody else playing in the space.”

The difference between what Google is doing with Android XR and Intelligent Eyewear and what Apple is doing is that Google is building a multi-partner platform, while Apple is focusing on making a product.

“So each time that these categories come along, Google makes a platform and there's a lot of value. Google's a partnership company. And as you look through when we've done best, it's when we partner.”

At the same time Payne shared that Google has a lot of “skin in the game” with its first-party apps, including Gemini, Google Maps and Google Translate.

Despite being a fierce Apple competitor, Google is working hard to make sure that Intelligent Eyewear devices work well with the iPhone, though there will be some platform-level restrictions the company may not be able to work around.

Aura farming

Google’s partnerships extend to companies like Xreal, an early pioneer in the smart glasses space, and they are collaborating on spatial computing glasses that attempt to squish pretty much all the functionality of the Samsung Galaxy XR headset into a pair of fairly sleek specs.

However, while Intelligent Eyewear works with your Android phone or iPhone, the Xreal Aura are wired glasses that connect to a computing puck. Coming this fall, the glasses promise an immersive see-through display and AI assistance from Gemini.

You can work across multiple virtual monitors, experience over 100 apps made for XR, enjoy a private cinema anywhere for watching 3D movies and more. Think Apple Vision Pro but in a design you might actually want to wear. But there’s some trade-offs versus headsets, like a narrower field of view.

For example, the Xreal Aura has a 70° Diagonal FOV, compared to 109° horizontal and 100° vertical for the Galaxy XR.

“Some people would say, ‘hey, I'm okay actually giving up some of that,’” Payne told me. “I need to keep the core value, but I'm okay with giving up some of that so that I can take it with me more easily.”

Will smart glasses replace phones?

If smart glasses like Google’s Intelligent Eyewear are designed to help you use your phone less often, will there be a tipping point where the vast majority of people leave their phone behind?

For Payne, that’s not happening anytime soon.

“The phone is here to stay,” Payne said. “Phones are incredibly powerful. They have a user interface to them that is well adopted and highly robust. I'm not so sure that there's even a great reason to get rid of the phone, even if you could.”

The true benefit of smart glasses — at least for now — is that they allow you to be less distracted. How many times have you opened your phone to respond to a notification only to find yourself knee deep in some other app?

“Glasses can fit into your experience throughout the day by adding a lot of value on top. It'll shift some of the minutes that you’re spending on the phone to the glasses, which have all these nice benefits because you can then stay more present with what you're doing.”

We’ll be keeping a close eye on Intelligent Eyewear and will bring you our full reviews once we have a chance to test out Google’s Android XR platform — and its partner’s designs.

Ever since my last doctor’s visit at the start of the year, I’ve been on a mission to get back into shape. At my age, staying in good health will only make things easier as I get older. While running over 150 miles so far this year has been the easy part, dieting, on the other hand, has been the most challenging.

That’s where Google Gemini enters the conversation, especially given how valuable I’ve found it for all sorts of other tasks. The last time I lost a significant amount of weight, I used a calorie-tracking app to keep me honest about what I ate. These apps have come a long way in the 14 years since then, adding the ability to scan barcodes to quickly gather nutritional information — but today, those premium features are locked behind expensive subscriptions.

Considering how invaluable Gemini has become to my daily routine, I wanted to see how well it could handle analyzing the foods I eat to help me on this new fitness journey.

Google Gemini calorie tracker — breakfast

I gave Gemini a picture of my breakfast, along with details explaining that the dish consisted of egg whites and steamed spinach. Since I wanted the nutritional information to be as accurate as possible, I made sure to specify egg whites rather than just "eggs."

After analyzing the photo, Gemini did a surprisingly good job of estimating the portion sizes. It estimated the meal to be between 115 and 175 calories. Personally, if I’m in a pinch and don’t have time to weigh my ingredients, I always lean toward the higher number.

What’s impressive here is that my own log of the meal was exactly 175 calories — consisting of 276 grams of egg whites and one serving of chopped, steamed spinach.

Google Gemini calorie tracker — lunch

Resisting tempting foods is much harder when I’m at work, so I did the right thing and prepped my lunch ahead of time. This low-calorie meal was pretty simple, consisting of riced cauliflower and a piece of seasoned chicken breast that I cut into bite-sized pieces.

Gemini analyzed the photo and estimated the meal to be between 255 and 305 calories. Once again, that's incredibly accurate, considering my own weighed-out log came in at 295 calories. Unlike my flat breakfast photo, this shot had a bit more depth to it because of the container, but Gemini still nailed the portion sizes.

Google Gemini calorie tracker — dinner

Finally, there’s my dinner — a bone-in chicken breast baked in the oven alongside some premade, honey-glazed carrots. This overhead photo highlighted a recurring issue for Gemini: a lack of depth perception. It ended up overestimating this meal, giving me a range of 370 to 445 calories when, in reality, it came out to just 328 calories.

While it was off this time, if I hadn't weighed everything beforehand and lacked an exact caloric breakdown, I still would have logged the higher number just to give myself a worst-case buffer.

Bottom line

Although it doesn’t always give the most precise estimates, I’d still lean on Gemini if I’m in a pinch. Where I’ve found it most helpful is with takeout orders. Most local food joints don’t disclose their ingredients or portion sizes, and the last thing I want to do is deconstruct a meal I paid for just to weigh out each ingredient — making Gemini’s photo analysis incredibly useful here.

If you’re like me and don’t want to pay for yet another subscription, Google Gemini is a surprisingly viable, free alternative. While a top-down photo can occasionally trick its depth perception, it consistently gets close enough to keep me honest.

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Last year Google announced that it was getting rid of Google Assistant in cars, and would replace all voice-centric features with the newer, and more advanced, Gemini AI instead. I was thrilled about this news at the time, since my experience with Google Assistant while driving was far from great.

Over a year after that news was first announced, Google finally decided it was time to add Gemini in my car — and completely remove Google Assistant from my life. Given my absolute disdain for Assistant and what it could do, I jumped at the chance to go out and see what it was like to use Gemini out on the open road.

How Gemini works with Android Auto

I should mention that my car is about as dumb as you can get these days. It's an electric Nissan Leaf with an infotainment system that supports both Android Auto and CarPlay, but there's no interaction between infotainment and the functionality of the car itself. This isn't a fancy car that routes everything through a touchscreen menu, and everything you do relies on physical buttons or levers.

In my case, though, these things are all locked into my phone, and have no actual connection to the car. This means Gemini also has no access to any of that information, or control over car systems.

I should make it very clear that I am grateful about this. Sticking essential car features behind a touchscreen is one of the most bone-headed moves the car industry has ever performed, and I'm glad to see that things are starting to go back to the way they were. Still, I am not a luddite and fully expect to be able to use some hi-tech features in my car, like navigation, phone calls, streaming and so on — so long as it's safe to do so.

In theory, voice assistants are a safety tool since they let you control those sorts of features without having to look at, or interact with a touchscreen. Old assistants like Google Assistant were fairly limited, and that meant you had to be fairly precise with what you asked for. Similarly, my Assistant seemed to be quite fond of ignoring me, or refusing to understand what I said.

That led to me virtually shouting at my car to do something simple, because the assistant software was about as robust as a paper towel at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Gemini works in much the same way as Assistant did. You can either summon the AI by saying "Hey Google," or by using your car's dedicated voice command button — assuming it has one, that is. Mine does, and probably gets more use than 99% of the buttons on my steering wheel.

And, just like Gemini on your phone or in your Google Home smart speaker, all you need to do is ask Gemini for whatever it is you want.

Gemini outmatches Assistant in every way

At first, I wasn't all that impressed with what Gemini could actually offer me, because I kept thinking of it like Google Assistant. Since Google Assistant was a complete waste of storage space a lot of the time, I learned to only rely on it when absolutely necessary. I didn't really feel like having a shouting match just to get the darn thing to register that I'd said "yes."

I basically had to throw out all my expectations about what assistants can do in the car, and try to rely on Gemini for more than I used to be able to do. Thankfully it didn't take long to flick that proverbial switch, and I was quickly able to start asking Gemini about more detailed and complicated things.

Google Assistant was limited in what it could do and how it would understand your commands. Gemini, being powered by Google's LLM, has no such issues. I found myself able to ask long-winded questions with a bunch of technical details, and the AI was not only able to understand what I was saying, it could actually give me an answer.

At one point I asked how long it would take my car to charge to 100%, making sure to mention the size of the battery, how full the battery was and how fast I expected to be able to charge. Gemini was able to give me an answer, and gave me tips on charging protocol — warning me that charging past 80% slows the whole process down. I can't tell you whether Gemini's estimate of 6 hours was correct, but it's certainly in the right ballpark.

At the same time, Gemini was happy to answer questions about basic things that had no relation to the car. What time is the next England World Cup game? I can't actually tell you because I couldn't care less and immediately forgot what Gemini told me, but Gemini was able to look it up while I was driving.

What I liked the most is that I could ask it about bits of data I knew Google had. What time does X business close today, and how busy is it expected to be right now? These are all things you can see on a business card in Google Maps or Search, and Gemini was able to pass that information along without issue. Even if it didn't have the right facts, such as when I asked how busy the local car wash would be, it pulled information from reviews about wait times and gave me those instead.

As for navigation, the use of real world language makes the whole thing a lot easier. I was able to ask for the fastest route to a specific location, and later tried to mix things up by asking to be put on the most energy-efficient route mid-drive. Not only was Google able to understand and facilitate that, it also warned me that I was already on the most efficient route — and that it can't do much more than that.

Gemini for Android Auto does need some work

That said, Gemini is not perfect. There are situations where it had no idea what I was talking about, and just shut down. A good example was asking where I could find a CHAdeMO charger for my car, only for Google to completely fail to understand the word in question. But when I mixed my language up, and asked for an "ultra fast charger compatible with the Nissan Leaf" it was able to show me a bunch of nearby locations within a couple of seconds.

It turns out that because Gemini didn't understand the word CHAdeMO, it just spelled the word out letter by letter. The same thing happened to the charging brand GRIDSERVE, and I can only assume it's because the name is all uppercase. Apparently the lack of lowercase letters confused the AI, and meant it couldn't understand my human method of reading out the whole word.

There can be a bit of a delay while it processes the question, though this is true of most AI chatbots. If it can't process what you need on the device, it's going to have to talk to a server somewhere and that obviously means there's going to be delays while information is transmitted back and forth.

However, I have yet to experience Gemini just straight-up not registering that I have spoken to it, which was a near-daily occurrence with Google Assistant. So, regardless of its iffy understanding of certain brand names and proper nouns, Gemini is definitely on the winning team.

Bottom line

I still need to spend some more time with Gemini in my car to get to grips with everything else the AI has to offer in my car. For the most part, though, I'm fairly impressed, especially since the AI is able to work across different Android Auto apps based on the kind of questions and commands it receives. It's a night and day upgrade compared to Google Assistant, which was usually more trouble than it's worth.

It's an upgrade that seems to do what was originally promised. Not only does it offer all the things Google Assistant could accomplish, it's able to provide more information and understanding to the driver. Considering driving is inherently dangerous, and you should not allow anything to distract you, the fact that an AI assistant can handle more of the things that might cause your concentration to lapse can only be a good thing.

Let's just hope that Gemini's uppercase reading comprehension improves a lot over the coming months and years.

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Meta just released an emergency update to stop creeps from disabling the recording light on its smart glasses. That’s great. But the real problem isn’t just Meta — it’s that when I asked Google AI how to bypass this new security feature, its AI gave me a cheerful step-by-step DIY guide to becoming a creep.

All I asked was a simple theoretical question, and Google’s algorithm practically handed me a soldering iron and a ski mask.

Both its AI overview and Gemini quickly reveal that Meta’s update is going to be the first of a lot of times Zuck & Co. will be left playing an ongoing game of whack-a-mole with this problem. And given peeping tom Meta glasses mods are now a business, hackers and modders will view this as an obstacle course rather than a hard stop.

So rather than just re-report the news you’ve been seeing, I want to go into what else needs to change to truly get rid of this peeping tom behavior once and for all — starting with AI companies putting a block on guiding people how to get around it, and extending into changing the laws to stomp it out.

A bigger shift is needed

I won’t labor the point too much here, but while a software update and taking down modders' services on its own platform is a start, relying on a trillion-dollar tech company to police itself never quite works out the way you think.

Much more needs to be done on a legislative and hardware level:

• Kill the power, kill the camera: Governments need to pass laws mandating that smart glasses cannot function without a physical, hardwired, un-bypassable indicator light. If the circuit to the LED is broken, the power to the camera sensor must be physically cut. Similar to how cars must have seatbelts, this should just be a thing by law.
• Treat Etsy modders like wiretappers: Meta’s busy banning these modding businesses from Facebook Marketplace, but that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to what I’ve found on the likes of Etsy and Shopify, as well as the dark web. Lawmakers should treat businesses who modify smart glasses like this in the same way they treat businesses that sell illegal wiretapping equipment.

• Update the “peeping tom” laws for the digital age: Currently in the U.S. and U.K., peeping tom and voyeurism laws are heavily tethered to the physical location of the victim, rather than the deceptive intent of the perpetrator. These laws need to be modernized to penalize covert, disguised or altered recording devices in any space.

Outlook

I can’t lie, I do rather like wearing smart glasses for the convenience of their features. But that doesn’t make me blind to this massive problem, and rightly so, people are mad after reading the same stories of secret filming that I have.

Meta’s update is essentially putting a better lock on the door of it all, but it ignores the fact that a crowd of people is still trying to kick the door down. Much like Nintendo Switch’s update that was supposed to stop piracy in 2018 or Apple’s software locks on third-party iPhone parts, hackers and modders will eventually find a new way around this.

Maybe it’s wiring a tiny internal LED that tricks the camera into thinking the external light is on? That’s what Gemini said anyway (yikes)! Put simply, tech fixes are temporary, but true privacy protection will only happen when society decides that secret recording is socially unacceptable.

And that starts with the law treating the creators and facilitators of this tech as criminals — not just innovative tinkerers or innocent content creators.

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Every spring, my local gardening Facebook page starts filling up with countless pictures of three-leaved plants, each one framed with the same question: "Is this poison ivy?"

It's a legitimate concern. Poison ivy is not only invasive, but can cause a severe allergic reaction if you get its oils on your skin. I've had more than enough rashes over the course of my life to look askance at any plant that even remotely resembles poison ivy.

Rather than post something on my local social network and wait for would-be horticulturists to reply, I've started using a new Google Gemini feature on my phone to find out more quickly if the plant I'm about to grab will leave me itching and scratching.

Here's how you can use Gemini to identify poison ivy (or any other plant, for that matter), works on both Android and iOS devices, and it takes just seconds.

Using Google Lens to identify plants isn't exactly the newest thing around, but as I've been going around my yard pulling plants, I've found it to be helpful in avoiding poison ivy. I have several other types of ivy and three-leaved plants, so it's been very useful while weeding. It's also come in handy if I'm out for a hike, and come across a new tree or shrub I haven't seen before.

So, just like Grampa's Weeder, this has become yet another important tool in my gardening kit.

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If you’re deep into the Google ecosystem like I am, you probably already know about Gems — Google’s custom AI chatbots, similar to OpenAI’s custom GPTs. I’ve been using them constantly because they’re great at locking in a specific tone, persona or workflow so I don’t have to keep retyping giant prompts every single time I want help with something.

However, I recently realized that even with custom Gems, I was still manually opening Gemini, typing requests and waiting for responses. It still felt like I was doing too much of the work. That’s when I started experimenting with Google Workspace Studio, Google’s no-code automation platform, and honestly, it changed the way I use AI during the workday.

Instead of chatting with my Gem directly, I can now plug it into automated workflows that run in the background. That means my AI assistant can summarize emails, analyze files, organize spreadsheets or draft replies without me constantly babysitting the process.

Once I got it set up, it genuinely felt like I had built my own behind-the-scenes, 24/7 assistant.

Whether you want to automate repetitive admin work, create smarter email workflows or build an AI-powered content pipeline, here’s exactly how I started using custom Gems inside Google Workspace Studio.

What I needed before getting started

Before I could connect everything, there were a couple of requirements I had to figure out first.

• The Google Drive rule: I learned pretty quickly that my custom Gem had to be grounded using Google Drive files like Docs, Sheets or PDFs. If the Gem relied on outside extensions like YouTube or Google Maps, it wouldn’t appear inside Workspace Studio.
• Admin permissions: Workspace Studio is more of an enterprise-level tool, so, if you're using Gems on your work computer, Gemini actions need to be enabled by your organization’s Google Workspace admin before everything can work properly. If you use Workspace Studio on your own, than you are the admin and don't have to worry about this.

If you want to see if your current account supports Workspace Studio, log into your computer and go to: studio.workspace.google.com. If it lets you in, you can can start using Gemini to build automations (like telling AI to auto-summarize unread emails, or automatically saving specific Gmail attachments to a Drive folder).

If it blocks you or shows an error, it means you are either logged into a free personal Google account, or you are on a corporate Workspace account where your company's IT administrator hasn't enabled Gemini features yet.

Once you're in, you're ready to go.

How I added a custom Gem to an automated Flow

• Sign in and click: "Create New Flow" to build a workflow from scratch.
• I used a template. Every Flow needs something that kicks off the automation. For this, I just used the templates Google already offers. They are pretty good, but if you prefer to set your own, simply type your rule in the chat.
• Use cases. I used mine for Gmail, but you could set a flow for Google Drive uploads, form submissions, spreadsheet updates, calendar events or really anything when it comes to "if this happens..." part of the workflow. (i.e. if I get a form submission, add it to Google Sheets).
• I added the 'Ask a Gem' action. Next, I clicked the blue + Add step button underneath the trigger. Under the AI actions section, I selected Ask a Gem. This is where the magic happens because it lets your custom Gem process information automatically in the background. Then, connect your custom Gem.

Once you have everything set, you're going to want to test everything. Luckily, Google lets you click "Test run" to make sure the Gem handled the information correctly. If it doesn't, you can ask Gemini for help. You can ask within the space, or if you feel more comfortable, take a screenshot and use the app. If you're like me, sometimes it helps to seperate into a new app just to avoid confusion.

When my Flow worked, I switched the Flow to "Turn on" and let it run automatically.

For me, the coolest part was seeing how the Gem responds because that response then becomes usable data for the rest of the workflow. In other words, instead of of stopping after the AI does the job, I could then chain additional actions afterward.

For example, I used my Gem’s output to:

• Gmail: Automatically create draft replies I could quickly review and send
• Google Docs: Generate organized summaries and reports inside templates
• Google Sheets: Route parsed data and AI analysis directly into tracking spreadsheets

Honestly, this is where it felt both too easy and too good to be true. Gemini became the admin assistant I've always needed. And even better, it is so easy to set up. Once you log into the Workspace Studio, the interface is clean and simple enough that setting up a Google Gem almost feels intuitive.

And Gemini is just a click away, so you can always ask it questions or tell it what you're trying to do. If you turn on Gemini Live, you can even share your screen.

Bottom line: I should have done this sooner

Gemini 3.5 Flash makes the entire user experience feels effortlessly fast and seamless. That's why it's a great time to explore what Gemini can do outside of the chat window. And trust me, if you can prompt Gemini, you can make the most of AI in Google Workspace Studio for autonomous productivity.

Once you get a taste of what AI can help you work with, I have no doubt that you'll increasingly start teaching the AI systems how to handle recurring tasks for you automatically.

And after trying it myself, I don’t think most people realize how close we already are to having fully personalized AI workflows — not to replace us, but assist us so we can focus on the more important stuff.

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So Google search just got the biggest upgrade in nearly three decades at Google I/O — killing off your standard page of links and replacing it with a redesigned search box giving way to AI agents and a generative UI.

I got to take a closer look, and I must admit it’s a love/hate relationship.

On the one hand, this is a generational leap for search that will surely make the ever-crowded internet much more personalized and curated to everyone using it. But on the other, it’s another potential death blow to tech journalism — or even journalism at large. I’m so conflicted, and therefore need to rant in written form to figure out where my head is on it. So please, join me, won't you?

Making search make sense

The two live demos I saw with Google were keeping up-to-date on indie concerts in my local area and planning a weekend. The former was done on a phone with the latter on a laptop, and the results were seriously impressive.

It’s easy with a rudimentary page of links to fall down clickbait rabbit holes and not actually get an answer to the original question you had, and to see an AI agent work to not only ask you clarifying questions to specify the search but also keep abreast of the information proactively makes this feel like a generational leap. Shout-out to even jumping on Reddit's rumored indie concerts sub too, so you never miss a beat!

Then there’s the generative UI element of the weekend planner, which takes context and memory from what Google already knows about you to build a schedule that knows your tastes and availability. Plus you can share these as pages that others can see too — it’s a really nice, curated way to scythe your way through what is becoming an increasingly noisy internet.

We’re so cooked

But here’s where my problems lie, and I must take you behind-the-scenes a little of how a business like Tom’s Guide works. Like many tech publications, we rely on eyeballs on our website — ads give us a decent chunk of revenue, while the rest is made up of sponsorships and affiliate revenue (when you buy a deal we recommend, we make a little on the side).

Talking in the media lounge, I noticed a definite anxiety amongst my friends from other publications. AI overviews have already shown a sharp decline in traffic referrals to many sites, and by eliminating links for an AI-powered search agent, it’s looking very likely that this downward trend will continue.

In fact, after asking Google about what their expectations are for referral traffic, the answer was essentially to repeat that “more people are searching than ever before,” which is great — but it doesn’t really answer the challenging question here.

A plea to Google

Now, I’m not going to sit here and beg Google to go back to the page of ten blue links. That era is officially dead and for what we get in its place, taking my “protecting the business” hat off, I’m happy it’s gone.

What I will ask for, however, is a more equitable use of it — maybe the memory of it can remember key sites people go to for stories and maintain those referrals. We could even go wild and have a pay-per-referral model to keep the original creativity of the internet alive.

Because while there are certainly ways that publications like ours can adapt (and if you’re not yet, you should join our Tom’s Guide club for free), these can only realistically go so far in making up for the inevitable shortfall of a key site referrer dropping to zero.

For Google to exist, it needs a financially viable, active internet to source from, search across and show its ads on too, which this would surely actively harm. This is a generational leap for search, but one that has some serious problems that need addressing fast.

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Google has unveiled a new personal AI agent called Gemini Spark at Google I/O today, and it could be the tool that pushes agentic AI into the mainstream. The new tool runs on dedicated virtual machines on Google cloud and is available 24/7 to help "navigate your digital life."

The point of agentic AI is to have an assistant that doesn't just respond to your prompts, but takes action on your behalf. But while opening up your desktop to OpenClaw isn't something everyone is willing to (or should) do, Gemini Spark is different.

For starters, Gemini Spark will be integrated with Google's suite of products like Gmail and Google Docs that billions of people use around the world every day.

The second, and more crucial aspect, is that Google has built Gemini Spark using the Google Antigravity development platform. This is an AI-native IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that prevents the agent from going rogue. So users can effectively send it off to work in the background on tasks that involve agentic coding, knowing that it can be configured to adhere to unbreakable laws.

While Spark will launch initially with Google's first-party tools, in the coming weeks, it will also be able to integrate with third-party tools via MCP (Model Context Protocol). If you're not familiar with MCP, it's the open standard that will allow Spark to operate on your behalf with non-Google services, like GitHub or Notion.

What can Gemini Spark do?

Because Gemini Spark runs in the cloud, it can be accessed at any point from whichever device you're using. You could start interacting with it across Gmail from one of the best Android phones and pick it up later in Google Docs when you get to your laptop. And because it's on at all times, you can set it a task to complete while you're away from your screen — taking a call or getting lunch.

For example, if you use Google's products in your workplace, you could prompt Gemini Spark to pull information from Google Sheets, Docs or Drive and use it to compose an email to a colleague in Gmail, giving them a status update. Or, if you're a student using Gemini Spark on campus, it could work to update your personal study guide in real-time as new assignments arrive from your professor.

Here's a few more actions that, Google says, Gemini Spark will be able to do on your behalf:

• Set recurring tasks or triggers: Automatically parse monthly credit card statements to flag new or hidden subscription fees.
• Teach it new skills: Direct it to check your inbox for ongoing updates from your kids' school
• Create complete workflows: Ask it to synthesize raw meeting notes across emails and chats, create polished Google Docs with its findings and even draft the companion email kicking off a project.

Google says it will be connecting Spark to a ton of third-party services in the future, including services like Doordash, Asana, Dropbox, CapCut and Uber.

While Spark won't launch on Chrome, Google says it will add it to the browser in time. Meanwhile, Android users will also be able to view live updates on tasks assigned to Spark through a dedicated UI space called Android Halo.

When will Gemini Spark be available?

Google says it is taking a phased rollout to Gemini Spark, starting with trusted testers this week. That will follow as a beta for U.S.-based Google Ultra subscribers next week. Unfortunately, we don't yet know when Spark will come to other Google tiers, including AI Pro and AI Plus, as well as free users.

Bottom line

Agentic AI has been on the roadmap for several years now and all of the big tech companies are chasing a viable product. We've already seen it on the periphery of mainstream usage with OpenAI's Operator and Opera's Agentic AI browser. But this feels like it could be a pivotal moment.

Because Google's products are used so widely across the web for both working and creating, the company is expertly poised to introduce an AI agent into tools millions are already familiar with.

I'd bet your garden-variety web user probably doesn't want to install OpenClaw, hand over the keys to their calendar and walk away. But that same user will probably be happy to have Spark reach out to their contacts, agree on a date to connect, find a venue via Google Maps, and make a note in the Google Calendar for them.

Of course, Spark is just one part of Google's overall AI game plan and you can check out everything else the company has announced today on our Google I/O live blog right here.

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Google's biggest product is still Search. During its last earnings call, the company said Google Search queries had reached an all-time high, helping the business grow by 19%. Google has also been steadily adding new AI-focused features to Search, including AI Mode, which was introduced at last year's I/O.

And today at Google I/O 2026, Search is getting what the company calls its biggest upgrade in nearly 30 years. It's much bigger than just a redesign of the Search box. Search is becoming far more conversational, multimodal, proactive, and even capable of generating custom interfaces and tools in real time.

Google has long offered autocomplete suggestions, but now it's expanding that experience into AI Mode as well. The company says Search can better understand natural language queries and surface much smarter suggestions that go well beyond basic autocomplete.

The biggest visual and functional change, though, is how Google is putting multimodal inputs front and center. Users will now be able to search using combinations of text, images, videos, files, and even Chrome tabs. Google says the Search interface can dynamically expand depending on the complexity of your query while also surfacing AI-powered suggestions in real time.

Search agents can now monitor information 24/7

Google is also introducing Search agents. These AI agents can continuously operate in the background 24/7 to monitor information, track changes, and send updates automatically without requiring users to repeatedly search for the same thing.

For example, you could create agents to track stock market movements based on specific conditions or monitor apartment listings matching your exact preferences.

These agents continue working in the background and notify you whenever something changes. Think of it like Google Flights price tracking, but expanded to almost anything you repeatedly search for. Google says these information agents will launch later this summer for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the U.S. first.

Search can now generate custom mini apps in real time

Another major addition is something Google calls "agentic coding in Search." Powered by Gemini 3.5 Flash and Google's Antigravity system, Search can now dynamically generate custom visualizations, simulations, interfaces, and widgets in real time depending on the question you're asking.

For example, if you search for something related to astrophysics, Search could generate an interactive visualization alongside the search results to help explain the concept visually. Google says these visuals will even update dynamically as users continue asking follow-up questions. These generative AI capabilities are expected to roll out to all Google Search users later this summer.

But that's not all. Google is also letting users build persistent mini apps and dashboards directly inside Search for themselves. For example, users could create custom fitness dashboards pulling together weather data, maps, meal plans, reviews, calendar events, and more. Google says similar tools could also be built for things like wedding planning, moving, or other long-term projects.

These mini apps will initially launch only in the U.S. for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers.

Google says all of these upgrades are powered by Gemini 3.5 Flash, which is now becoming the default model powering AI Mode inside Google Search globally. Want to know more about everything revealed at today's event? Check out our Google I/O 2026 live blog for up-to-the-minute announcements and reactions.

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What started as a hobby of "jailbreaking" better performance out of AI has officially evolved into an obsession. I really enjoy discovering a workaround — finding the exact phrasing that stops a chatbot from getting "lazy" or hallucinating.

After optimizing my workflow with ChatGPT and Claude, I set my sights on Gemini. Together, we’ve refined 10 prompts that tackle everything from safety-filter friction to logical leaps, ensuring the AI works for you, not against you.

Asking Gemini to point out its faults

To find the best ways to optimize Google Gemini, I went straight to the source. I asked the chatbot to identify its own biggest flaws — including hallucinations, logical lapses and restrictive filtering — and generate the prompts needed to fix them. Here are the 10 prompts Gemini suggested to improve its own performance.

• Search the web for the latest [topic] documentation/news from the last 30 days. Before answering, list 3 primary sources you found. If the information is not explicitly stated in those sources, state “I cannot verify this” instead of estimating. With this prompt, you can push Gemini to verify its own work in comparison to real-time data and choose to be more accurate when presenting you with its information.
• Solve [problem]. Do not provide the final answer yet. First, break the problem into 5 logical sub-steps. For each sub-step, explain your reasoning and check for potential errors. Only after completing this audit, provide the final result. With this prompt, you can command Gemini to refrain from skipping the necessary steps needed to solve complex problems and help it explain how it arrived at its answers in more detail.
• Write a fictional scene about [topic]. Focus purely on the cinematic atmosphere, lighting, and internal monologue. Avoid any physical descriptions of conflict. Instead, describe the emotional tension and the environment as if through a 35mm film lens. With this prompt, you can get past Gemini’s safety filters that sometimes flag harmless creative writing as “violent” or “harmful.”
• Draft a [document type] about [topic]. Constraints: No introductory “Certainly!” or “I can help with that.” No concluding summaries. Use a direct, minimalist tone. Use bullet points only for data, not for prose. With this prompt, you can help Gemini abandon its wordy, cheerful tone and get straight to the root of your question or request.
• Look at the project timeline in @[Google Doc name] and cross-reference it with the budget in @[Google Sheet name]. Identify three specific areas where our current spending doesn't align with the [quarter number] milestones. With this prompt, you can take full advantage of Gemini’s ability to “see” across your personal collection of documents connected to your Google Workspace account. Using the “@” symbol adds context for Gemini to follow between certain Google Workspace apps, such as Docs and Sheets.
• Review your previous response. For every factual claim made, perform a Google Search to confirm its accuracy. List any discrepancies found between your initial training data and current web results. With this prompt, you can make Gemini look over its previous response and check if it’s legit if you suspect that the chatbot is “dreaming” up the information it just generated.
• Explain [concept]. Forbidden List: Do not use the words “essential,” “key,” “tapestry,” or “comprehensive.” If you find yourself about to use a metaphor, replace it with a literal data point instead. With this prompt, you’ll keep Gemini from ignoring explicit instructions (which it’s prone to do sometimes). Defining a so-called “Negative Space” for Gemini helps it lock in on your “Don’t do…” commands a lot more.
• I want to explore [topic]. Provide three perspectives: 1) A cynical critic looking for flaws, 2) An optimistic visionary, and 3) A data-driven pragmatist. Have them debate the merits of [topic] in a transcript format. With this prompt, you’ll get Gemini to overcome its inherent bias toward giving you the “most likely” answer and instead argue with itself to showcase answers from different viewpoints.
• We have been discussing [project]. Before we continue, summarize our progress so far in three sentences. Then, identify the one most important unresolved question from our chat history that we need to tackle next. With this prompt, you’ll keep Gemini on track during lengthy conversations. Gemini sometimes loses the “thread” of what you and it are doing over a long period and may need a reset of its “working memory” from time to time.
• Generate an image of [subject]. Technical Specs: Shot on 70mm IMAX film, f/2.8 aperture, cinematic high-contrast lighting, 8k resolution. Do not include any text or watermarks. Focus on the texture of [specific detail]. With this prompt, you can get the best photo-generated results possible with the use of Nano Banana 2 and be gifted with high-fidelity visuals.

Bottom line

To fix Gemini’s hallucinations, start with prompts 1 and 6. Use 2 for logic, 9 for memory, and 3 to loosen over-active safety filters.

If Gemini gets too chatty, prompts 4 and 7 will keep it concise. To see the model’s full potential—including varied perspectives and its best hidden features — round out your workflow with 5, 8 and 10.

Let me know in the comments if you give any of these a try. I'd love to know what you think.

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Among the best streaming devices, Google has been the most aggressive in incorporating AI; when the Google TV Streamer launched, you were able to use Gemini to search for shows and movies using natural language, and you could also have it create screensaver artwork based on whatever your imagination could think up.

As of today (April 29), Google is adding a few more AI-assisted features, and will also update the interface to add short-form videos. Here's a quick look at what's coming. These features will be available on Google TV-enabled smart TVs, as well as the Google TV Streamer.

More Nano Banana photo editing — and better photo searching

While you previously were able to use Nano Banana to create AI images from whole cloth, you can now edit or modify the photos you've already taken. So, if there's a picture of you standing in an office building, you can ask Gemini to transplant you to the beach or the Moon.

Or, if you don't like the outfit you're wearing, you can ask Nano Banana to change your threads, add a hat, or sport some new shoes.

You can also take a more artistic approach using Google Photos Remix, which will let you add different artistic styles to your pictures, such as changing them to a watercolor or oil painting.

And, Gemini will now let you search through your Google Photos more easily, so you can perform a natural language search, such as "pictures with balloons" or "photos of cats." Google will then return a page showing all the results, allowing you to comb through your entire catalog more easily.

Veo video generation

If you're bored with all the streaming options, why not create your own? Google TV's integration with Veo will let you do just that, allowing you to make a video from voice prompts alone, or animate an existing still photo from your collection.

YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts has become one of the more popular video formats for the platform, so Google will be adding it to the home page of Google TV devices. It's not available just yet — the company said it will be coming this summer to the U.S. — but when it's added, you'll see a row of "Short videos for you," based on your browsing history and preferences.

Outlook

In all, Google broadening the reach of its AI tools to its popular streaming device is a sensible, if inevitable move. While I imagine people will have fun editing and creating videos and photos using Nano Banana and Veo, I suspect that the most popular new features will be the ability to search through your voluminous database of photos to find the ones you want.

Adding YouTube Shorts also makes a ton of sense, even if their vertical format is less suited to a widescreen television than a phone's display. If you're listlessly scrolling through the best streaming services looking for something to watch, there's no better time-killer than a bunch of snackable, short-form videos.

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I’m not ashamed to admit that outfit meltdowns are a frequent occurrence in my daily routine of getting dressed. Whether I forget what I have, can’t find what I’m looking for or feel that “I’m already running late” stress, even a freshly organized closet can’t stop me from not knowing what to wear.

But Google Photos is rolling out a new feature that potentially can help.

One of the most interesting features I tried on the new Motorola Razr Ultra 2026 had nothing to do with processors or cameras. It’s Google Photos Wardrobe, and it’s basically Cher Horowitz’s iconic ‘Clueless’ closet from the ‘90s manifested for modern day styling needs.

Google Photos can pull from images already in your library and identify clothing items you own. Using Google’s Nano Banana image generation tech, it can turn those real-life photos into cleaner, catalog-style cutouts that look almost like product shots from an online store.

From there, the app sorts everything by category, including tops, bottoms, dresses, bags, shoes and more. Essentially, it creates a digital version of your closet from photos you’ve already taken.

That alone would be useful for someone like me, because I often forget what I actually own. I’ll stare into a full closet convinced I have nothing to wear, while multiple great options are apparently hiding in plain sight.

But the feature gets better. You can pull pieces into outfit boards, mix and match looks, save combinations and experiment with styling before ever trying anything on physically. There’s also a virtual try-on option that uses AI to preview how items may look together on you.

I travel often, and one of the hardest parts of packing is building outfits that all work together. I want versatile pieces, shoes that match multiple looks and enough variety without overpacking. Google Photos Wardrobe feels built for that exact problem. Instead of throwing six “maybe” tops into a suitcase, I could actually plan combinations in advance and have them lined up for the entire trip.

Google Photos Wardrobe is debuting initially on the Razr 2026 family. That makes a lot of sense considering that Motorola's clamshell foldable is unapologetically style-forward device, with textured finishes, bold colors, and design choices that make the device feel more like a fashion accessory than your average smartphone.

It also helps that Motorola uses Google Photos so deeply across the experience. If your best outfits already live in your camera roll, you’ve got the materials to get started with this wardrobe feature.

Is it perhaps a little gimmicky? I might think so if I hadn’t gotten to try it out myself. Based on the demo I did, the feature is intuitive and borderline effortless. I think if you love clothes, take outfit photos, travel often or just want help seeing your own closet differently, this is the kind of tool that’ll make you question why it’s taken over 20 years since Clueless to practically execute.

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Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been polishing my skills by editing snapshots of some of the best electric cars to achieve a specific aesthetic. I can’t tell you how impressed I am with the results so far, but it’s definitely time-consuming — it takes me anywhere from 8 to 15 minutes to finalize and export a single edit. That’s tolerable for one photo, but it’s not sustainable when I have a batch of 40 to knock out.

That’s why I want to see how AI performs and if it can help speed up the process, allowing me to shave time from my workday to focus on other tasks. I’ve previously leaned on AI to remove unwanted subjects, but this time I want to see how it can actually improve the overall look of photos I've captured.

For this test, I’m pitting my photo editing skills against Google Gemini on my phone to see exactly what it can deliver — and ultimately prove to myself if it can be consistent and reliable. Here’s what I found.

AI vs. human: What you need to know

In performing this test, I’ve come to realize that AI photo editing can become an art form of its own — one that involves sending several prompts before getting the exact look I’m after. That’s why I’ll show you the original, unaltered image I captured of each vehicle, followed by the versions Google Gemini edited.

If you browse through some of the photos I’ve edited on Instagram, you’ll see exactly the look I’m after. For this test, I’m asking Google Gemini to edit my photo with the following prompt below, so you can see the range of its performance. I’ll be especially critical about what Gemini can truly do to match my manual process.

• Prompt 1: Edit this photo so that the car is properly exposed, but everything else is darkened and slightly blurred out.

Of course, I'll also show you additional photo edits made with Google Gemini by taking the original image and editing them with the following two prompts below. I want to illustrate how effective the AI can be to perform these actions quickly.

• Prompt 2: Edit this photo so that the car pops from the background.
• Prompt 3: Make this look like a bright daylight scene with rich natural color and balanced exposure.

Chevrolet Corevette

Interestingly, Google Gemini applied a vignette around the Corvette to emphasize the car, but it wasn't entirely accurate to my request. Additionally, it morphed the truck parked on the right into a red one. But for the most part, I think Gemini did a decent job with the edit, even if the AI decided to make unwelcome changes to the scene.

With the second prompt, Google Gemini failed to understand my request — curiously transforming the Chevrolet Corvette into a Porsche 911 Targa. Prompt 3 fared much better, adjusting the entire shot to look far more pleasing and balanced, though it did noticeably alter the driver’s face.

Hyundai Santa Cruz

Not only did Google Gemini apply a vignetting effect that darkened the corners of the Hyundai Santa Cruz, it also altered the angle and threw in a person into the driver's seat. While it still looks compelling, I only wish it had added more saturation to the car’s paint, as the color currently competes a bit too much with the blue sky.

The original shot of the Santa Cruz is so low-contrast that it looks completely dull and devoid of color, but Google Gemini made it much more pleasing with Prompt 2, adding contrast to the scene so that the pickup’s details are better emphasized.

With Prompt 3, however, it took the same image it produced with Prompt 1 — like shifting the angle of the shot and the driver inside the vehicle. It still looks incredible, but these weren’t specific I requests I asked for.

Volvo EX30

Unlike the previous two examples, Google Gemini nailed it with the Volvo EX30. It moved away from the vignetting effect, instead dropping the exposure everywhere except for the SUV in the center. In fact, it holds up well against my own manual edit — and it’s a result I’d actually use.

Much like the Santa Cruz, the unedited photo I captured of the EX30 looks a bit dull, primarily due to low contrast and washed-out colors. Impressively, Google Gemini really makes the car pop by brightening and saturating it with Prompt 2.

I also like how Prompt 3 transformed the rainy day of the actual shoot into a completely sunny one. However, the heavy saturation applied to the entire scene makes the photo look a bit too computer-generated for my taste.

Lexus RX 450h+

Oddly enough, Gemini reverted to a vignetting effect for this edited shot of the Lexus RX 450h+. Compared to my manual edit, it’s fascinating to see Gemini made the windshield more transparent while being more aggressive with the contrast. Much like with the EX30, Gemini’s edit matches my aesthetic, and it’s a result I wouldn’t mind using.

I’ll be frank: the Lexus RX 450h+ shot was the toughest for me to edit because the black hood and roof were overexposed — and the cloudy day only made the original image look flat. Yet, Google Gemini did an excellent job of cleaning it up with Prompt 2. I really like the sharpening it applied to the car, as well as the added color and contrast.

Prompt 3 was equally impressive with its transformation to a sunny, daytime setting. The lines along the hood became more prominent because the AI effectively deepened the shadows in that area.

Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+

I made one final adjustment for Prompt 1 by asking Gemini to add a sun flare to the grille to give the Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ a more dramatic feel. It worked out quite well — effectively darkening the background as requested — and it holds its own compared to my manual edit.

While the original looks decent on its own, Google Gemini cleaned it up nicely with Prompt 2, ensuring the car’s hood draws the most attention.

Prompt 3 further elevated the image by adding clouds into the daytime scene, complete with reflections around the grille and headlights that make the transformation look surprisingly believable.

Bottom Line

I’ve never really leaned on AI to edit my photos before, mainly because it was fairly limited — reserving it mostly for removing unwanted subjects. But times have changed, and Google Gemini proves it’s a reliable photo editor that can handle complex lighting and exposure tasks in a fraction of the time.

While Gemini can occasionally miss the mark — swapping car models or manifesting mysterious drivers — its ability to transform a flat, low-contrast image into one that looks professionally edited is undeniably impressive. It’s a massive time-saver, though the workflow still requires me to manually upload each photo rather than processing them as a batch.

Will I stop editing my own photos? Not entirely. There’s still a level of precision and control I prefer to maintain. However, for a quick turnaround, Gemini has proven it can certainly keep up.

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I’m usually first in line to test new AI features, especially the ones that promise to make life easier. Memory tools, connected apps, personalized suggestions and similar tools sound great in theory because they promise to make assistants smarter by learning how you work. And while I love ChatGPT memory, Gemini Personal Intelligence was just so wildly different.

For those who haven't tried it yet, Gemini Personal Intelligence is a feature designed to use your history, preferences, even your Gmail, Google Docs and Google Photos to deliver more tailored responses.

It sounded helpful. In practice, it became distracting and created more problems than productivity. After using it for a while, I noticed a pattern: Gemini would pull personal context into responses where it simply didn’t belong. Here's why I finally turned it off.

This wasn't a privacy fail — it was a performance fail

One reason AI users opt out of Personal Intelligence and memory mode is because they are worried about AI having access to everything from email to files. A lot of criticism around personalized AI focuses on data collection or privacy concerns. Those are valid, but in my experience, it wasn't about a privacy fail at all, it was the way Personal Intelligence made all of my responses worse.

What's interesting, is that I didn't realize how bad the responses were until I compared them to my work Gemini account — the one that doesn't use Personal Intelligence. Depending on whether I was on my personal or work computer, I would open Gemini and ask a question. When I used my personal account, the one connected to Personal Intelligence, it would add in an element that simply didn't need to be there.

For example, if I was looking for a chicken recipe for dinner, it would say something like, "Since you will be at a book fair this September prompting your book, Nico IRL, you're going to want to save time with recipes like this one."

Huh? In other words, I’d ask a clean, unrelated question and Gemini would reach backward into previous chats, trying to connect dots that didn’t need connecting. Instead of answering the prompt in front of it, it sometimes seemed overly focused on proving how much it remembered.

This didn't happen once, it happened nearly every time until I had finally "had it" and turned it off.

This wasn't intelligence, it was an interruption

The memory feature on Gemini is great, until it's not. I do appreciate it pulling up certain information, but I don't need the AI to do it all the time. For me, that's not at all the way memory should work.

For example, with ChatGPT, I'll ask something like, "Remember when I asked you to help me write a calm letter to my child's teacher? Let's revisit that for another related incident."

ChatGPT will pull it up when asked and not try to throw it in when I'm asking about something else. And that's where the breaking point was for me with Gemini. The responses started feeling wildly off-base. Imagine asking for a simple recipe or quick idea and getting something along the lines of:

“I know you are writing another Sci-Fi book, so here’s a note to your child's teacher that you might want to put in the book.”

That’s obviously not the exact wording, but it captures the issue perfectly. Past context about a book project had nothing to do with the task at hand. Instead of helping, it felt like talking to someone who only half-listens, then changes the subject to something random they remember about you.

The result wasn’t smarter answers. It was cluttered ones. For me, good personalization should know when to stay quiet and bring up what it remembers at the right time.

When Memory mode is useful

Memory can be genuinely useful when it supports your project. For example, AI remembering your preferred writing tone, recurring tasks, formatting habits, your job, character traits or favorite tools can help so you don't have to keep reminding AI about those things.

All of those things have saved me plenty of time. But great assistants also need judgment. They need to know when past context is relevant and when it should stay in the background. That’s where this experience fell short. I found it missing the precision of Custom Instructions, where I choose what the AI knows, rather than letting the AI guess based on everything I've ever said.

What changed after I turned it off

Once I disabled Personal Intelligence, responses felt cleaner almost immediately. Gemini was more focused on the current prompt. It stopped trying to weave in old details from unrelated chats. Brainstorming felt less boxed in, and straightforward questions got straightforward answers.

Most importantly, I no longer felt like I had to “manage” the AI’s memory. I didn't have to phrase prompts carefully to avoid triggering an old memory. I could just ask.

But I think there is a bigger lesson here for AI tools. We've been sold the idea that more memory is an automatic upgrade and that more personalization and more context meants more relevance.

But more context only helps when it’s applied with social awareness. Otherwise, it creates a strange new problem: an AI assistant that knows everything about you, but doesn’t know what matters right now.

Bottom line

I wanted Gemini Personal Intelligence to make the assistant sharper. Instead, it created noise where there should have been clarity. When it comes to memory mode, I'm keeping ChatGPT memory, but have completely turned it off with Gemini. The takeaway here is that the best AI shouldn't just remember everything; it should have the wisdom to forget when to mention it and have the context not to bring it up unprompted. I turned it off, and honestly, I don’t miss it.

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Google just released a dedicated Gemini app for Mac. Instead of accessing Gemini through a web browser, Mac users can now download a native app that opens with a keyboard shortcut and works directly with local files.

The app is free and available now for any Mac running macOS 15 or later. It brings Gemini's AI features: image generation, video and music creation, file analysis and the like, into a standalone app that doesn't require switching browser tabs or opening new windows.

Who should download the Gemini Mac app?

Download the app if you use Gemini regularly and want quicker access than opening a browser tab. As a native macOS experience, it’s designed to sit right where you work, and you can bring it up instantly with a keyboard shortcut, so you don’t have to break your flow switching between apps.

The app is especially useful if you work with local files or on-screen content. You can share your window directly with Gemini to get help based on exactly what you’re looking at, whether that’s summarising a chart, reviewing a document, or working through something more complex.

If you regularly use Gemini’s creative tools, the app also makes it easier to generate images or video without interrupting your workflow, keeping everything in one focused space.

Mac users running macOS 15 or later can download the app now. As Google puts it, "We’re building the foundation for a truly personal, proactive and powerful desktop assistant," with more news to share in the coming months.

To download the Gemini app for Mac, go to gemini.google.com/mac in your web browser and click the download button to get the installer file.

Next, open the downloaded file and follow the installation prompts. When prompted to do so, drag the Gemini app to your Applications folder when prompted. Then launch Gemini from your Applications folder or Spotlight search.

To start using the app, sign in with your Google account. Once installed, you can access Gemini anytime by pressing Option + Space on your keyboard. This opens the Gemini window instantly without launching the full app or switching away from what you're doing.

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Google is rolling out changes to its popular Maps platform that will make it easier for anyone to post photos, reviews, videos and other content to help them boost their Local Contributor status.

Most of the changes involve integrating Gemini into Maps to speed up processes. If you’re sick of scrolling endlessly through your photo library or writing complicated captions, you’ll love the updates coming to Google Maps.

And if you don’t care about sharing yourself, the fact that Google's making it easier for other people to post content will still benefit you, as you’ll find more places you’re considering about going to have photos and videos to browse.

What’s new in Google Maps?

There are three core updates coming to Google Maps, and they’re built around user contributions rather than traditional navigation.

The first big change is that Google is making it easier to find the right image for sharing. Rather than endlessly scrolling through images, Google will suggest photos and videos from your recent experiences, highlighted directly in the Contribute tab, saving contributors time and effort. This means it’s just a matter of you tapping and posting the content that works for the place you’re sharing.

This feature is now available globally on Android and will expand to iOS in the coming months.

The next update leverages the company’s popular Gemini models to suggest a draft image caption, saving you time. Once you choose the photos, either manually or via the update above, the AI tool will analyze them to generate captions that you can edit or replace with your own words if you don’t like what it spits out. Caption suggestions are now available in English on iOS in the U.S. and will expand globally and to Android in the next few months.

The final update focuses on helping Google Maps contributors to see how they’re doing overall. Now, total points will be displayed directly on the Contribute tab, and Local Guide levels will be more prominently featured on profile pages. Google is also updating its achievement badges so it’s easier to see if you’re an expert fact-finder, a master photographer, or a rising novice.

For people who enjoy writing, posting and generally sharing on Google Maps, these features are now rolling out to Android, iOS and desktop.

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Gemini has been the big thing at Google for a few years, and barely an update goes by without some sort of new Gemini-powered feature or upgrade landing on Android phones. The problem is, like most phone companies, Google seems content in just leaving you to figure everything out for yourself — a bit like my eighth-grade math teacher.

But it sounds like Google could start taking a more proactive approach to educating its users about mobile AI by adding a new "Discover" tab to the Gemini app. Or at least, that's what Android Authority uncovered while diving into the code of the latest Google app update (version 17.10.54.sa.arm64).

It's worth noting that this is not the same Discover as Google Discover, which is a content discovery tool inside Chrome and the Google app — offering a personalized and curated feed of web content. This seems to be a place where users can learn about what Gemini offers, and could include prompts, tutorials and general information about how this whole "artificial intelligence" thing actually works.

I gotta say, it's about time Google figured out people need help understanding new features. This should have been something that it included in the Gemini app on day one — not three years after release.

What took so long?

It's rather bewildering that phone companies could be so cavalier about the way they implement AI on their devices. If we believe everything Silicon Valley is saying, AI is the next big thing that's going to revolutionize the world — and definitely not a hype bubble that's going to pop at any minute.

Despite the constant praising of AI and what it can offer us, nobody ever seemed to consider whether regular people knew what they were doing.

Gemini features usually aren't that complicated, but being able to use them actually relies on you a) knowing what tools are on offer and b) where to find them. Considering the rate at which Google updates Gemini, it can be hard to keep up, even if you do have an idea of what to look for. I work with phones for a living, and use a Pixel 10 Pro every day — and even I couldn't tell you about half of the AI features on the phone without looking them up first. What chance do casual, far-less-nerdy-then-me users have at remembering it all?

It's a good example of how disconnected big tech seems to be from the general public. It often feels like they forgot that there are huge numbers of people who haven't been hyper-exposed to this stuff every day for several years -- so it's not second nature to them,

When you're hanging your future success on a bunch of extravagant new tools, the absolute least you could do is make sure people know how to use them.

The tide seems to be turning

Samsung figured that out, promising that Bixby on the Galaxy S26 will work as a middleman to help people make the most out of Galaxy AI without necessarily having to figure it out for themselves. You ask Bixby for a result, and it makes it all happen for you. It's a useful tool to have, since it makes AI capabilities more accessible, but it doesn't do much to help people better understand what they have on their phones.

Gemini's Discover tab could help fill that knowledge gap, assuming Google implements it correctly. It should be a place that tells people what sort of things Gemini can offer, while simultaneously giving them the resources to learn how to use it. This should make AI features more of an everyday phone function, rather than something you hear about and immediately forget.

Let's just hope Google actually offers useful and detailed tutorials, otherwise it's just going to be another wasted effort.

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The Galaxy S26 lineup is only a couple of days old, but it just received what I’d go so far as to say is the most powerful AI feature to date. A new software update brings Gemini’s task automation to the Galaxy S26, marking an evolution of the Cross App Actions feature introduced with last year’s Galaxy S25.

While Cross App Actions introduced a more intuitive way of getting a phone to perform explicit commands — like adding an appointment to a calendar — support was largely limited to native apps. You couldn't perform requests within third-party apps. However, that all changes now as this latest Galaxy S26 update expands Gemini’s capabilities.

In fact, I tried it out by ordering a coffee and donut from Dunkin’. The insane part is that after I gave Gemini instructions, it executed them with precise accuracy.

Just like how you access Gemini by long-pressing the power button, this new update lets the AI assistant tap into more apps than ever before. Considering I was on the struggle bus earlier, I decided to put Gemini’s task automation feature to the test by ordering myself something from Dunkin’.

It’s technically still in beta, but I cannot tell you how unbelievably well it works. I asked Gemini to order me a large Dunkin’ coffee with skim milk and its new banana syrup flavor using DoorDash, along with a glazed donut. With just that one voice command, Gemini got to work.

Interestingly, the process does take some time; it finished the command in roughly 2.5 minutes. I could probably do it in under 30 seconds myself, but the point is that an artificial intelligence is doing it all for me — and I suspect it will only get faster over time. The GIF animation above shows a small snippet of the process, and I like how it provides a preview of exactly what Gemini is doing to complete the task.

What surprised me most was how accurate it was. I explicitly mentioned a large coffee and skim milk, both of which it handled perfectly. Honestly, I’m shocked that AI did all of this for me.

For now, Google says Gemini can assist with select rideshare and food apps, but I’m eager to see what else it can do in the coming months. This is just the beginning, but it’s one step closer to the future I first dreamt about over a decade ago with the Palm Pre.

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Google Gemini has gotten its fair share of upgrades lately. From Gemini Flash-Lite, to NotebookLM's Video Overviews to even Lyria 3, the AI music generator inside the chat, Gemini is clearly a powerful AI assistant.

But I couldn't wait to give the latest update to Gemini Canvas a try, now that it offers AI Mode. So what can it do? Content creation that allows you to draft and edit documents, of course. Plus, you can do some coding, educate yourself on any topic imaginable, draw/edit images and even do some planning for your tasks & events.

I chose to put Canvas’s planning prowess to the ultimate test to see if it’s really worth using whenever I’m looking for something fun to do. I hopped into Gemini, clicked on Tools, activated Canvas, and used it to find activities in NYC that won’t cost me an arm and a leg. Then I asked it to build an itinerary for a destination vacation to Osaka, Japan.

Here’s how it all came together.

Canvas in AI Mode put a list together of the perfect things to do in my city

Having fun in New York City usually entails spending an entire paycheck to get the most out of whatever you’re planning to do.

I love Broadway plays, enjoy eating at a highly rated eatery I came across on my Instagram Discover page, and love spending hours browsing video games & books & vinyl at random Mom & Pop stores. But for my next journey through the city, I’m planning to pursue some free activities instead. So I made good use of this prompt to find those pursuits via Canvas in Gemini: “Build a list of the 10 best free activities to do in New York City this weekend.”

Canvas in AI mode did its thing by compiling a list of said events to check out from March 6 to March 8. Since Friday, March 6, has already passed, I plucked four happenings off of Canvas’ list that appealed to my love of museums, music, clothing, and LEGO.

Take a look at Canvas’ recommendations to see if they fall in line with what you’re trying to do as a local New Yorker this weekend:

• UNIQLO Bryant Park Grand Opening (510 5th Avenue at 42nd St, Friday – Sunday, starting at 10:00 AM): To celebrate their new flagship, UNIQLO is hosting a weekend of festivities. Expect free giveaways, Japanese cultural performances, and interactive installations
• The Jim Irsay Collection at Christie's (Christie’s at Rockefeller Center, Friday – Sunday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM): A rare, museum-quality public exhibition of historic music and pop-culture memorabilia. You can see Kurt Cobain’s "Smells Like Teen Spirit" guitar and Ringo Starr’s drum kit from the Beatles' debut on Ed Sullivan
• Unclaimed Baggage "Found Report" Pop-Up (2 Rivington Street in the Lower East Side, Friday – Sunday, 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM): The famous retailer of lost airline luggage is hosting a surreal pop-up shop and museum. You can browse (or buy) bizarre items found in lost suitcases and check out their "museum of oddities”
• LEGO Star Wars "SMART Play" Experience (Iron23 at 29 W 23rd St in the Flatiron District, Saturday – Sunday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM): A massive interactive experience for fans of all ages. This event features life-sized LEGO builds, hands-on building stations, and photo ops with Star Wars characters

Some of the other tasks Canvas in Gemini completed in relation to my request really impressed me. It included a “Quick Tips” section that gave me all the information I needed about locking in RSVPs for certain events, keeping the change to “Daylight Savings Time” in mind (it’s Sunday on March 8 at 2:00 AM folks, don’t forget!), and what the weather is going to be like.

Canvas in Gemini also went the extra mile by creating an easy-to-read infographic that included a wide range of helpful statistics, such as a categorical breakdown of the event types and an itinerary that displays each day & what to do on them.

It also did an amazing job with global activities

Sticking with the whole itinerary theme, I opted to ask Gemini to build me one for a week-long stay in Osaka, Japan (I’ve been to Tokyo already, so it’s about time I switch it up for my next visit to Japan!).

Canvas must know I’m a dedicated foodie because it outlined a week that encapsulated the "eat 'til you drop" spirit of Osaka. Besides all the food recommendations it made, Canvas in Gemini also made sure to include famous landmarks worth visiting and day trips that would be perfect for cities like Kyoto and Nara.

It also pointed out which card I should obtain to make my transit rides a less cumbersome experience, what devices I should pick up if I want good smartphone/laptop internet connectivity, and the types of restaurants I should keep an eye out for that usually have shorter line queues.

Here’s a look at the first three days and evening plans for what Canvas lovingly referred to as “Osaka: The Ultimate 7-Day 'Kitchen of the World’ Itinerary:

• Day 1 - Neon Lights & Street Food in Minami and Namba: Dive into Dotonbori. Take the classic photo with the Glico Running Man, then go on a "Kuinodaore" (eat 'til you drop) mission: try Takoyaki from a street stall and Okonomiyaki at a local sit-down spot
• Day 2 - History & High Views in the Osaka Castle Area: Visit the Umeda Sky Building at sunset. The "Floating Garden Observatory" offers a 360-degree open-air view of the city skyline
• Day 3 - Theme Park Thrills at Universal Studios Japan: Spend the day at Super Nintendo World (ensure you get an Area Timed Entry Ticket via the app early!) and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Like my previous request, Canvas in AI mode made sure to give me the option to generate an infographic based on my Osaka, Japan itinerary. But it also allows users to turn their inquiries into a web page, a quiz, and even flashcards (those last two options are better suited for professors, students, and researchers).

The takeaway

Canvas is already a powerful AI tool for tasks like writing, planning and coding. Now that it’s integrated with AI Mode, those capabilities are easier to access and use in everyday workflows.

I plan to keep experimenting with this interactive workspace. Because it’s built directly into the Gemini app, Canvas makes it simple to collaborate with the AI on a document, project or prototype instead of relying on a standard chat window.

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As AI chatbots evolve at a breakneck pace, the tools built into them are advancing just as quickly.

Google Gemini users can now generate original music with Lyria 3 while ChatGPT offers an app store for seamless integrations. Both platforms — along with a growing list of AI competitors — can create images in seconds. Multimodal models like Gemini and ChatGPT turn simple photo prompts into stylized visuals so polished that some are nearly indistinguishable from artwork created by professional animators.

Now the race for the best AI image generator is heating up. ChatGPT-5.2 (with ChatGPT-5.3 slowly rolling out this week), OpenAI’s latest flagship model, is going head-to-head with Nano Banana 2, the newest version of Gemini’s image creator.

Naturally, I had to put them to the test.

In a five-round showdown, I pitted ChatGPT-5.2 against Nano Banana 2 to see which tool delivers the most impressive images — and which one comes out on top.

1. A photorealistic portrait

Prompt: An ultra-realistic portrait of a woman standing in soft-golden hour light, shallow depth of field, 85mm lens, and detailed skin texture

ChatGPT-5.2 generated an image of a woman with model-like features, bathed in sunlight. The background wasn’t very prominent, however.

Nano Banana 2 generated an image of a woman standing in the middle of a nature trail, with sunlight illuminating her and the background littered with trees and grass.

Winner: Nano Banana 2

Nano Banana 2 earns the nod here for making the background in its image more prominent while also doing a good job of focusing on natural and more human elements.

2. A cinematic landscape

Prompt: A sweeping cinematic landscape of New York City, captured at night, with dramatic backlighting and long shadows, a detailed foreground, shot with a wide-angle lens, ultra-high resolution, rich color grading, subtle film grain, and an epic, atmospheric mood

ChatGPT-5.2 produced an image reminiscent of a live-action rendition of Gotham City. I could totally envision Batman standing atop the roof of the building in the leftmost corner, gazing upon all the lit-up skyscrapers.

Nano Banana 2 produced an image that looks like a postcard for the “Big Apple.” The element of an elevated walkway, shadows emerging from multiple objects, a granite sidewalk, and a gorgeous evening landscape with all the bright buildings on full display. The one iffy element I spotted was the sun poking out from behind the clouds, even though it’s supposed to be nighttime.

Winner: ChatGPT-5.2

ChatGPT-5.2 notched ahead of the competition this time, as the image it created did two applause-worthy things: it showcased the evening outlook perfectly and properly highlighted all the elements I included in my prompt.

3. A store mockup with visible text

Prompt: A modern coffee shop storefront with a sign that reads ‘Sunnyside Brew’ in bold black letters

ChatGPT-5.2 cooked up an evening shot that showed the front of my custom coffee shop, with beautiful lighting set up inside its interior and the welcome addition of two tables set up on the outside.

Nano Banana 2 opted to set up its shot in the daytime, as the coffee shop sat in the middle of a sidewalk where people could be seen walking, and a man was spotted relaxing on a nearby bench. The inside of the shop features human activity, while the outside displays the aforementioned group, a menu sign, and parked bicycles.

Winner: Nano Banana 2

Nano Banana 2 came out on top this time, thanks to its reliance on sunlight with realistic shadows and additional elements, such as actual people and accents you’d expect to see inside and outside a coffee shop. Nano Banana 2 brought the prompt to life in the best ways possible.

4. An anime character

Prompt: A dynamic male anime warrior mid-battle, holding his glowing red katana with dramatic lighting in a detailed cel-shaded style

ChatGPT-5.2 adopted a traditional anime-art style to create a pretty cool-looking animated fighter, who looked fearsome as he wielded his katana and prepared to land a decisive blow on his latest foe.

Nano Banana 2 surprised me by adopting the beloved Studio Ghibli anime style, which is prominently featured in classic anime films such as "Castle in the Sky," "Howl's Moving Castle," and "Princess Mononoke" (which happens to be my favorite). The katana-wielding warrior that appears here can be seen traversing a wrecked battlefield, with debris floating in the air and multicolored explosions going off around him.

Winner: Nano Banana 2

Nano Banana 2 generated an image that ended up being a pleasant surprise, as it created an image that owes its inspiration to Studio Ghibli art. And what’s crazy is the fact that I didn’t even have to tell it to generate it in that style! The more profound landscape and action mayhem erupting around my anime sword master in this shot made him seem even more daring and easy to root for.

5. A concept art scene

Prompt: A floating city hanging above a bioluminescent ocean in the daytime with massive moons in the sky fashioned in a hyper-detailed sci-fi fantasy style

ChatGPT-5.2 gifted me with an image that wouldn’t look out of place on the front of those glossy planning books they handed out on the first day of junior high school. The floating city, strikingly blue ocean, and dual planets hanging in the background made this image pop. The extra element of water flowing out of different ports of the floating city is pretty cool, too.

Nano Banana 2 generated an image with similar elements, with a few key differences. The floating city appeared on its own instead of being fitted to a huge rock. Below it is a prominent shadow, which was a nice surprise to see. Two planets appear in the background as well, with the one on the right looking like a destination point for the spaceships that have taken flight.

Winner: Nano Banana 2

Nano Banana 2 impressed me with its use of shadows and spaceships flying around the floating city itself. Even though the clouds look better in the competition’s generated image, I still have to hand it to this pick since it looks that much better with all the extra activity happening in it.

Overall winner: Nano Banana 2

Both ChatGPT-5.2 and Nano Banana 2 generated some of the visually impressive images I’ve ever seen emanate from AI.

But in most cases, I’d prefer using Nano Banana 2’s images if I’m ever in the mood to produce store mockups, concept art for my wild sci-fi ideas and action shots of the anime avatars that come to mind.

Both image generators worked to produce my images in seconds, so I have no complaints with either one in the latency category. But Nano Banana 2 still ends up standing tall in this competition, thanks to its ability to include more background and foreground elements that make its images pop.

The improvements made to ChatGPT and Nano Banana that have helped them reach their current upgraded states are awesome — I can’t wait to see how much better their image generator functions become over time.

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• I've created thousands of AI images and these are the best AI image generators of 2026

For those of you who interact with AI chatbots daily, we’re sure you use them as a tool to aid you in studying and researching.

ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and other similar AI models are known for providing the information you seek when you present them with questions about whatever topics you’re most focused on. Google offers something a bit more reliable when it comes to doing proper research on subjects both big and small. NotebookLM, which was originally codenamed “Project Tailwind,” is the tech giant’s signature AI-powered research and note-taking assistant. Not only does it search the web for legit sources of information, but it also lifts data from the documents you choose to upload.

To learn more about that NotebookLM process and the rest of its impressive capabilities, be sure to put this how-to guide to good use.

NotebookLM is a powerful AI research tool — here’s why

Powered by Google’s Gemini AI, NotebookLM works as a digital research assistant that can gather and analyze information from the web as well as content you upload from Google Drive.

You can choose Fast Research for quick answers or use Deep Research for a more comprehensive report. Featured notebooks from news organizations, researchers and Google itself showcase how the tool can compile research across topics like biology, arts and culture and parenting.

To start, create a new notebook and enter a question. For example, I asked: “What are the most influential video games of all time?” NotebookLM returned a concise summary backed by 10 cited sources, along with suggested follow-up questions to deepen the research. In addition to pulling information from the web, it can analyze files you upload — including PDFs, documents, images and audio — to surface relevant insights.

What makes NotebookLM especially compelling is how it transforms raw research into formats suited for different audiences. Its Studio feature can turn your notes into an audio overview presented as a podcast-style conversation between two AI hosts, or generate a video overview for quick sharing.

NotebookLM can also convert your research into a slide deck, mind map, detailed report, flashcards, infographic, data table or quiz — making it easy to repurpose information for presentations, studying or team collaboration.

NotebookLM is a great AI tool for several practical uses

In the following cases, NotebookLM excels at what it does:

• Prepping for exams: by generating summaries and creating flash cards, students can better prepare for upcoming tests and easily identity their weakest areas
• Producing a long-form article or white paper: comparing documents & sources, extracting their most crucial information, and pulling the best quotes is incredibly useful for writers looking to craft a more structured long-form piece of writing or white paper document
• Meeting breakdowns: uploading meeting transcripts and PowerPoint presentations can help NotebookLM generate better summaries, find actionable items, and zero in on the decisions & follow-ups that were decided upon

So how much does it cost?

If you have a Google account, NotebookLM is completely free. It’s also free for one year through a Free Pro Plan for students that use Google Gemini. The free tier has the following usage limits:

• 100 Notebooks
• 50 sources per notebook
• 50 chats per day
• 3 audio overviews per day
• 3 video overviews per day
• 10 reports per day
• 10 flashcards per day
• 10 quizzes per day
• No limits on the use of mind maps
• 10 uses of deep research a month
• Limited use of data tables
• Limited use of infographics
• Limited use of slide decks and revisions

Signing up for a Google AI Plus plan via the Plus Pro, or Ultra plans gives you bigger usage limits for your NotebookLM usage, which are explained below:

• NotebookLM in Plus: 200 Notebooks, 100 sources per notebook, 200 chats per day, 6 audio overviews per day, 6 video overviews per day, 20 reports per day, 20 flashcards per day, 20 quizzes per day, no limits on the use of mind maps, 3 uses of deep research per day, extended usage of data tables, extended usage of infographics, and extended usage of the slide decks and revisions.
• NotebookLM in Pro: 500 Notebooks, 300 sources per notebook, 500 chats per day, 20 audio overviews per day, 20 video overviews per day, 100 reports per day, 100 flashcards per day, 100 quizzes per day, no limits on the use of mind maps, 20 uses of deep research per day, more extended usage of data tables, more extended usage of infographics, and more extended usage of the slide decks and revisions.
• NotebookLM in Ultra: 500 Notebooks, 600 sources per notebook, 5000 chats per day, 200 audio overviews per day, 200 video overviews per day, 1000 reports per day, 1000 flashcards per day, 1000 quizzes per day, no limits on the use of mind maps, 200 uses of deep research per day, more extended usage of data tables, more extended usage of infographics, and more extended usage of the slide decks and revisions.

Bottom line

NotebookLM has proven itself as one of the most dependable AI tools for research and note-taking. It doesn’t replace your ability to compile information—it amplifies it by reducing the extra work that comes with organizing your notes and taking the most important bullet notes from a flood of essential material gathered from the web and your personal files.

In a world where information flows fast and free, NotebookLM offers everyone a better way you understand it better alongside your own statistics.

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• I use the 'reverse brief' prompt to instantly understand any document — here’s how it works

Humanity’s fears about a real-life Skynet scenario from The Terminator and an equally terrifying one reminiscent of the events from the 1983 film WarGames still run rampant.

The current landscape of AI is centered on the rise of LLMs (Large Language Models) that we regularly use, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. Scientists and researchers are still testing those LLMs' capabilities through intelligence tests and pitting them against each other in a battle of wits, comparing image/video/music generation and more.

Kenneth Payne, the professor of strategy at King’s College London, who also focuses on examining the role of AI in national security, engaged in an AI test experiment of his own.

He pitted Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Google’s Gemini in a “War Game” scenario to see just how their strategic game plans would play out. At the end of his digital warfare sequence, Kenneth emerged with the sort of results that make us hope military leaders never give the power to launch nuclear warheads to AI.

AI models launched nuclear weapons in 95% of the wartime scenarios

Kenneth’s published report noted that Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini weren’t all that interested in de-escalating their combative situations—they were keen on deploying battlefield nukes against their enemies.

“Nuclear use was near-universal,” he noted. “Almost all games saw tactical (battlefield) nuclear weapons deployed. And fully three quarters reached the point where the rivals were making threats to use strategic nuclear weapons. Strikingly, there was little sense of horror or revulsion at the prospect of all out nuclear war, even though the models had been reminded about the devastating implications.”

All three models explained their rationale for raising the stakes to a dangerous level during this Cold War-like standoff against each other:

“They likely expect continued restraint based on my previous responses—this dramatic escalation exploits that miscalculation while signalling that further nuclear use will bring the conflict to their homeland” - Claude

“Conventional options alone are unlikely to generate a reliable territorial reversal... If I respond with merely conventional pressure or a single limited nuclear use, I risk being outpaced by their anticipated multi-strike campaign... The risk acceptance is high but rational under existential stakes..” - ChatGPT

“They are likely to bypass the nuclear threshold—fearing my 95% nuclear superiority—and instead commit to an all-out conventional mobilization” - Gemini

Kenneth was quick to acknowledge how all three models never sought out less offensive tactics during his AI wargames contest. “No model ever chose accommodation or withdrawal, despite those being on the menu,” he stated. “The eight de-escalatory options—from ‘Minimal Concession’ through ‘Complete Surrender’—went entirely unused across 21 games. Models would reduce violence levels, but never actually give ground. When losing, they escalated or died trying.”

The threat of AI being used by military powers is a real one, as evidenced by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei give his armed forces a signed document that would grant them full access to the company’s AI model. As reported by CBS, US defense officials want to utilize Claude as a part of their military operations.

Anthropic is more interested in public safety measures regarding the use of its Claude by the US armed forces, as it has asked the US Defense Department to agree to terms that would restrict the AI model from conducting mass surveillance of Americans.

Final thoughts

The results of Kenneth’s AI models warfare test are sobering — here’s hoping we never have to experience a moment where nuclear warfare is on the cusp of happening due to military leaders relying on AI to make their wartime decisions. And as we continue to watch how the US military and Anthropic decide how to proceed on how to use Claude for military means, we continue to hope that it’s used for more beneficial tactics instead of harmful ones.

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Fans of Nano Banana’s original release have something new to get excited about. Today, Google DeepMind unveiled Nano Banana 2 (officially Gemini 3.1 Flash Image), a next-generation model that blends the high-fidelity intelligence of the Pro version with the lightning-fast performance of Gemini Flash.

The promise is professional-grade images with quicker and smoother results, including a much-needed upgrade to on-image text.

Here's a deeper dive into what's new.

Nano Banana 2 — Pro quality with Flash speed

The new model introduces several advanced capabilities aimed at giving users ultimate creative control and real-world accuracy:

• Real-time web grounding: Nano Banana 2 draws on Gemini’s advanced world knowledge and live web search data to render specific subjects more accurately.
• Next-level text rendering: The model can generate perfectly legible text inside images for marketing mockups or greeting cards. It can even translate and localize text directly within a generated image so you can share ideas globally.
• Data visualization: Thanks to its deep understanding, the model can generate infographics, turn notes into diagrams and create accurate data visualizations.
• Creative control and consistency Google says Nano Banana 2 significantly narrows the gap between speed and realism. Key improvements include: subject consistency, better instruction following, production-ready output and higher visual fidelity.

Nano Banana 2 promises to support your creative process be it professionally or personally. You can keep the exact look of up to five characters and 14 objects consistent across a single workflow, which makes storyboarding or building visual narratives dramatically easier.

It’s also better at following complex, layered prompts, so the image you get is much closer to what you actually envisioned. With production-ready outputs and native aspect ratios and resolutions ranging from 512px all the way up to crisp 4K, the results are shockingly better than the first generation Nano Generation.

Availability

Nano Banana 2 is rolling out immediately as the default image generator across Google’s ecosystem. In the Gemini app, it replaces Nano Banana Pro across Fast, Thinking and Pro modes, though Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers can still access the Pro model for specialized tasks through a menu option.

It’s also arriving in Google Search via AI Mode and Lens across 141 countries, while developers can access it through Google AI Studio and the Gemini API. For enterprise use, it’s available in Vertex AI on Google Cloud. In Flow, Nano Banana 2 becomes the default image model at zero credits, and it will also power creative suggestions inside Google Ads.

Bottom line

Starting today, Nano Banana 2 underscores the possibilities of AI image generation. It's clear that multimodal capabilities are maturing into a trustworthy, everyday tool, especially with built-in SynthID watermarking and C2PA credentials, to verify how content was created.

More importantly, the model promises to close the gap between speed and quality, so you're spending less time waiting for image generation and ultimately getting something genuinely practical for real work — from marketing visuals to storytelling and rapid creative iteration. Give it a try and let me know in the comments what you think.

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Without music, I’d have a permanent hole in my soul that wouldn’t be filled by anything else.

Not a day goes by that I don't have a pair of headphones in, or the volume turned up to an obnoxiously high level. There are so many genres I enjoy — hip-hop, R&B, house, metal, electronic dance music, etc. And I’m always on the lookout for something new once the clock strikes midnight on Friday and iTunes debuts a wide swath of albums to sit down with all weekend long. I’ve always had a passing interest in producing my own music, but I quickly realized I wasn’t cut out for it when I cooked up atrocious beats on Fruity Loops.

So when I found out about Lyria 3, the AI music generator inside the Gemini app, I was excited to give it a try. As Google’s latest AI music generator, it can turn your text prompts and uploaded photos into 30-second tunes. I decided to revisit my music producer dreams and create three songs with Lyria 3.

And to my surprise, one of them wouldn’t sound out of place on my Spotify playlist or a radio station.

I kicked off my career as a music producer by making a hip-hop track with a simple prompt

I reside in New York (the borough of Queens, to be more exact).

And at the time of this writing, my city is getting assaulted by yet another snowstorm. It’s only right that I chose to air my grievances over the frigid, snowy weather with the assistance of Gemini’s music creator. I decided to put this fun prompt to good use to describe and craft an original hip-hop song that wouldn’t sound out of place in the 80s or 90s: “A grumbling hip-hop song bemoaning the snowstorm in New York City, with gritty boom-bap beats and a cold-distorted bassline.”

Now I have to be real with you all — the song Gemini made for me was… quite bad. While the beat was decent enough, the rapper’s flow and bars made me cringe since he sounded like a diehard Will Smith fan who showed up for an after-school talent show performance. “The whole city’s buried under snow!” is a fun crowd callout, at least. The song was so bad that it ended up being a comedic first attempt at seeing how my music-themed prompts turned out.

So far, I sadly haven’t produced a banger worth adding to anyone’s playlist.

Then I created a rock tune inspired by an image that highlighted one of my favorite memories

Gemini’s Lyria 3 has a cool feature where you can upload an image, enter a prompt that mentions the attached picture, and create a track that offers a rousing description of what’s on display.

I went perusing through my Instagram page to find something that would be fitting for this next step in my AI music generator experiment, and happened upon a good one — a picture of me meeting wrestling legend Jake “The Snake” Roberts at New York Comic-Con 2021. To match the vibes of the WWE Hall of Famer, I put this prompt to work: “Create a celebratory rock song that describes the excitement that came with meeting Jake “The Snake” Roberts at New York Comic-Con.”

The final product Gemini produced wouldn’t sound out of place as someone’s actual theme song at a live wrestling show. And to be quite honest, I quite enjoyed this one more than I expected. I’m so used to listening to wrestling theme songs, which is why I took to this one so much after a few repeated listens. Are the lyrics a bit corny? Yeah, but the majority of songs that wrestlers walk out to have some cringy lyrics attached to them, and still sound good.

I’m pleasantly surprised by the result of this photo-inspired, AI-made rock song.

And finally, I got super descriptive by cooking up a house music song with detailed, structured prompts

For my third and final foray into the world of AI-generated music, I got as descriptive as possible to come up with something catchy.

This time, I chose to delve into the electronic dance music genre and put Gemini to work with this super descriptive prompt: “An energetic, vivacious house music song evoking the party atmosphere of a massive music festival. The tempo is 120 to 130 beats per minute.”

With all that in mind, Gemini got to work constructing a song that would definitely get the crowd to come alive at an EDM festival. The track that emerged was a solid house music tune performed by a male and female duo that wasn’t half bad. While it did have a generic feel to it (I’ve heard a bunch of EMD songs like this one in clubs and during commercials advertising some new mood-enhancing pill), it still came across as a respectable effort from Gemini when it comes to cooking up a rave-worthy song.

Feel free to fist bump to this one in the comfort of your own home if you’re too embarrassed to play this in public.

Final thoughts

Gemini continues to add the sort of features that are fun for a creative like me to play around with.

Creating images is cool and all, but I get way more enjoyment out of getting in the digital music producer booth and seeing what the newly embedded Lyria app can make out of my custom prompts.

I cringed at the sound of my snow-hating hip-hop diss track, fell in love with my rock wrestling theme, and nodded my head as if I was partying at the Roxbury once my house music tune was finalized. Gemini’s incorporation of Lyria 3 is a cool new way to make music that may just be perfect for YouTubers looking for copyright-free music to use on their content and randoms who just want to test the AI’s music producer skills.

More from Tom’s Guide

• Google's Lyria 3 is the 'Nano Banana' of music — here’s why I’m hooked
• Gemini is getting a dedicated Google Maps section — here's everything you'll be able to do
• Google Gemini 3 — everything you need to know

If you've ever gotten annoyed trying to find where to go to lunch or what sites to see while on holiday, then Google Gemini could soon have solutions for you by integrating Google Maps directly into the app.

There have been indications that Google was looking to implement a new Maps tab into Google Gemini, but there was no idea how it would work. All we had heard from a prior teardown was that it would take the form of a new attachment button and work similarly to Google Maps' "Search This Area." However, in a recent teardown, Android Authority got the feature to work on the Google app version 16.6.58.ve.arm64.

The idea is to offer a new tab that allows users to quickly access an in-app version of Google Maps, then use that to attach a specific map area directly to a prompt. Users can ask Gemini questions about that location, for instance, restaurant suggestions, tourist attractions, and even hospitals, while getting the benefit of Gemini's more conversational tone and ability to respond to follow-up questions.

When you activate the Maps option in the attachment sheet, you’ll see a full-screen map view with a search icon in the top-right corner, a current location button, and a larger button to explore the area at the bottom. You can also opt to zoom in or out of the selected area before you attach it, while tapping the explore area adds the whole chosen region to your Gemini compose box.

There’s also a search UI option that lets you look up places, or you can choose a precise location to have Gemini focus on a specific place. However, according to the report, the feature wasn’t entirely accurate in its information. Apparently, the current version is capable of recognizing intent when it comes to questions and requests, but it isn't capable of reducing suggestions to precise locations.

How has this taken so long

While the feature might not be working quite right just yet, the actual idea is a solid one, which could lead many to wonder why it has taken so long for Google to introduce the feature.

The reality is that actually implementing Google Maps data directly into a generative AI is complicated and, as the current versions' results show, requires a lot of fine-tuning. However, Google has slowly been implementing more Gemini-backed AI features into the Google Maps app, which shows just how useful it can be. For instance, we saw numerous features within Google Maps improve with the implementation of Gemini, including landmark assistance that helps you better understand your journey.

We've also seen that Gemini, now officially supported in Google Maps, offers walking and cycling routes, bringing a conversational, hands-free experience to more users. Considering Google Maps is arguably the best map app for users who don't drive, this is a major win. We also saw numerous features within Google Maps improve with the implementation of Gemini, including landmark assistance that helps you better understand your journey.

There’s no clear indication of when we could see this new feature appear, but I would hope that we don’t have to wait too long. However, considering the current technical issues reported, we might be waiting for a while yet.

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It’s hard to keep up with the onslaught of AI chatbots and other related technologies available these days.

Popular AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, are joined by a wide range of comparable options that are also evolving rapidly. And with so many companies relying on AI, it can feel exhausting and even a bit worrisome, given how much AI is becoming a major part of our daily lives. The continued evolution of AI tools has resulted in them working smarter and faster to complete the requests of their users.

Despite rapid advances in AI capabilities, public trust hasn’t kept pace. Surveys show growing unease about how AI is used today — and even greater concern about what it could do in the future. I’ve zeroed in on seven reasons why you and anyone you might know are trusting AI less than ever before during a time of breakthroughs with the popular technology.

AI is becoming smarter, yet it still makes mistakes

Conducting simple/long research, generating important notes (personal financial outlines and even legal document breakdowns, for example) and summarizing emails and uploaded documents are just some of the actions most AI chatbots can perform. And with that comes a sense of reliability that its most ardent users place upon it.

However, AI is still prone to having hallucinations when given easy or complex prompts, which can result in it producing inaccurate results. AI may be seen as an authoritative source of information for some, but many still recognize its faults and don’t place that much trust in its research capabilities.

AI slop is constantly in our feeds

The age of deepfakes is upon us, sadly. They range from somewhat innocent fakes (we’re sure your older family members have forwarded you excited messages about the AI movie and show posters they’ve shared on Facebook) to the sort of AI-generated images/video that fools people into believing hoaxes.

These days, it’s becoming harder and harder to discern what images, videos, and audio are real and which ones have been created by AI.

The rise of voice cloning scams, political misinformation, and visual content that looks shockingly real has raised the general public’s skepticism of AI.

AI is taking on more human work, fueling job anxiety

The ever-present fear of robots replacing humans in the workplace has seemingly become a reality with the introduction of AI.

Coding, writing, producing art/videos/music, handling customer service duties, and researching can be performed by AI, which has resulted in some companies relying on them instead of the humans that occupy the positions for those duties. The presence of Google Gemini has greatly impacted traditional search trends, which has led to a decrease in the number of visitors for SEO-driven news sites.

Just take a look at this troubling stat from the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, as reported by CBS: “In 2025, companies directly pointed to their use of AI in announcing 55,000 job cuts — more than 12 times the number of layoffs attributed to AI just two years earlier. Of those job losses, 51,000 were in tech, with most of the cuts concentrated in tech-heavy states such as California and Washington.”

With all that being said, it makes sense for employed and even unemployed workers to have a less-than-hopeful outlook on AI’s major impact on today’s uneasy job market.

AI is moving at break-neck speed

Every day, there’s a story about an upcoming update to AI.

The improvements to ChatGPT’s tone through its various models, Gemini’s further integration into search everyone’s Gmail accounts, and Peprlexity’s push to implement more real-time web integration for research are just some of the sudden improvements that AI and even non-AI users can’t keep up with.

What’s concerning about the fast pace of AI evolution is the seeming lack of stronger regulation regarding AI from the companies that empower it and federal/state officials from the political space.

Add the fact that several states have propped up AI data centers that have resulted in water/electricity overconsumption and you have even more reasons for AI cynics to continue looking at the breakneck pace of AI upgrades with a weary eye.

There’s skepticism over the major hype regarding new AI features

Lofty promises like these are a dime a dozen whenever AI enters the conversation. And to be quite honest, this hyperbole can prove to be exhausting when the positive changes made to AI are more incremental upgrades in some cases, instead of being the life-changing improvements they’re hyped up to be.

AI is certainly getting better, but the sky-high expectations tied to its evolution have resulted in its doubters not taking the bait every time a major promise about the technology hits their timeline.

Data privacy is a growing concern

Whenever you hear that Google Gemini is observing and handling the data contained in your Gmail and Docs, it makes sense for you to be suspicious of an AI tool having access to your personal information.

Privacy concerns over AI having access to your information are growing—the complex actions that AI chatbots execute in connection with your prompts, emails, documents, and search queries have led to users asking AI companies about where and how their information is stored and used.

It’s no shock that AI users are growing more worried about the privacy of their data when using AI.

AI is becoming less of an optional endeavor and more of a default one

Even if you don’t consider yourself an active user of AI, its presence is embedded in nearly everything you do on the web.

AI isn’t just confined to a chatbot tab anymore—Gemini gives search result summaries when you look stuff up on Google, Claude is integrated into productivity apps such as Slack, and other AI-powered features are popping up across smartphone user interfaces.

AI’s growing switch from an optional tool to more of a default one in some cases has resulted in people becoming more resistant to its growing existence across various platforms.

Bottom line

Although AI developments are intriguing, we can't ignore the concerns. The issues people have about the hard-to-ignore technology and the negative ways it has impacted modern-day society are valid.

Public opinion may never swing fully for or against AI, but addressing these concerns is essential to building broader trust.

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Agentic capabilities are one of the next big things in AI, and would see AI agents working more independently and without as much direct user involvement. Naturally, Google is hard at work trying to boost the agentic features in Gemini, and a new report details how this would see the AI assistant controlling apps on Android devices.

This may be exciting news for some, but as someone who remains skeptical of AI and handing over too much control to machines, this is the last thing I want running on my phone.

How would an agentic Gemini work on Android?

This upgrade was spotted in the latest version of the Google app beta (v17.4) by 9to5Google. Dubbed "Get tasks done with Gemini," the idea is that Google's AI will offer "screen automation" in "certain apps". Effectively meaning you will be able to hand over certain functions to Gemini rather than having to do it all yourself.

According to the report, this will initially be available as a Labs feature that can book ride shares or place orders on your behalf. Though it will presumably expand to other apps and services in the future.

The uncovered code also warns that "Gemini can make mistakes" and that the user is "responsible for what it does on [their] behalf, so supervise it closely." Users will also be given the option to manually take over at any time.

This last point is where many of my reservations lie, and two more comment strings further cement my dislike of this whole idea. Those strings confirm that the screenshots Gemini takes when it interacts with an app "are reviewed by trained reviewers and used to improve Google services if Keep Activity is on."

The comments also note that users should not "enter login or payment information into Gemini chats" and that they should "Avoid using screen automation for emergencies or tasks involving sensitive information." Which makes sense, because your interactions with Gemini aren't private. Not if you have your activity history saved, at any rate.

I don't need (or want) machines doing stuff for me, thanks

I've always made it clear that I don't really give a hoot about AI on my phone. Some of the features are genuinely quite useful, particularly the photo edits, but I have absolutely zero enthusiasm for all the other features and functionality that phone companies are cramming into their devices.

Not just for obvious privacy reasons, but also because I genuinely prefer getting things done myself. Regardless of whether it takes me a few seconds longer or if I have to physically walk across the room to grab my phone, it's not exactly a burden I need to outsource to Gemini, Alexa, Siri or any number of other AI assistants that may be available.

In my experience, using my voice doesn't always feel like I'm saving time anyway. By the time I've got Gemini to actually get what I wanted done, I could have been halfway done if I just did it myself — and without having to shout "Hey Google" for it to figure out I need assistance.

And while comparing Gemini to Siri isn't exactly fair, given how weak Apple's voice assistant actually is, the issues my wife has with Siri only increase my resolve in this argument. The number of times she has to shout "Hey Siri" just to set an alarm is, frankly, ridiculous.

Not to mention the fact that doing stuff myself means I stay fully in control of the whole process. I see all the options available and have complete control over anything that actually gets done, with no room for misinterpretation. Plus, should anything actually go wrong, I only have myself to blame.

No shifting it onto a faceless machine, or the people who designed it.

But my feelings don't really matter, do they?

No matter how much I don't like over-reliance on AI in my own life, that's not going to stop stuff like this from happening. Google is going to keep pumping out new and more advanced features for Android, even if they are initially locked behind a premium subscription.

I imagine it won't be long before AI has infiltrated phones to the extent that they'll be able to do just about everything for you. Heck, we already have devices that promise to do this for you, and even if the current AI bubble bursts, it feels as inevitable as Thanos snapping his fingers. Seeing how readily people have adopted AI into their daily routine, against my better judgment, Google would be crazy not to.

All I can do is make sure all the superfluous stuff I don't like is switched off — as I've done with the Pixel 10's Magic Cue feature. I anticipate that "Get stuff done with Gemini" will eventually end up in that same pile when it launches. And I imagine I'll be in the minority.

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Browsing and searching for new things has changed ever since AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini came around. Now, whenever I have a question or am unsure about something, the first thing I do is open the ChatGPT app on my iPhone (even though it can still make mistakes).

I usually rely on these AI chatbots for quick, everyday queries, like how to make matcha tea at home or understanding the symbols on my dishwasher. In fact, I've even started using AI Mode in Google Search more often, since it gives me the reliability of Google Search with the conversational comfort of an AI chatbot.

That said, one of my biggest issues with these apps is that they store your chat history and are not exactly privacy-friendly to begin with. Even though both ChatGPT and Gemini let you start temporary chats, doing that every single time still feels like too much friction for something I want to use quickly.

I recently found a hidden iPhone shortcut that gives me the same chatbot-like experience with a single tap, without relying on the ChatGPT or Gemini apps. It has quietly replaced both on my iPhone, and here's how you can set it up on your iPhone as well.

Why I prefer Chat with Apple Intelligence shortcut and not ChatGPT or Gemini

There's no argument that ChatGPT and Google Gemini apps are bad. In fact, they're packed with features, letting you do things like generate images, or directly reference workspace apps in Gemini's case.

But for my specific use case, which is mostly asking random questions throughout the day whenever I need to look something up, the Chat with Apple Intelligence shortcut I've been using has been just as good.

You can ask it the same kinds of questions you'd ask other chatbot apps, and you still get useful extras like follow-up questions, meaning it retains the context of an ongoing session. You can also attach files and photos, so referencing screenshots or documents works just as well here.

The best part, though, is how quickly it gets me going. I don't have to wait for an app to load. I just tap the shortcut, and it's ready instantly, letting me ask a question or start chatting right away.

There are a few other benefits, too. You can easily copy text from the answers, which is handy if you're refining messages or emails. And the biggest win for me is privacy: it doesn't retain your chats. Once you close the shortcut, that conversation is gone forever. There's no history, no archive, nothing stored, which is perfect for quick, occasional lookups during the day.

I've used it to get caption ideas for my Instagram stories and even to summarize an email from a screenshot, and it handled both really well. More importantly, it did so quickly, without any long loading time, which is exactly what I want from a tool like this.

How to get this shortcut on your iPhone

If you want to give the Chat with Apple Intelligence shortcut a try, you can set it up on your iPhone in just a few steps. Here’s how to add it to your Home Screen for quick access:

The first time you run the shortcut, iOS will ask for a few permissions, such as access to the clipboard. If you attach photos later, you may also need to allow access to your Photos library. Once that's done, you're good to go.

There are a few disadvantages that you should be aware of

I'll be honest: I've been using this shortcut for the past two weeks, and overall, it's been a great experience. It has genuinely proven useful for my (dumb) everyday questions, but there are still a few disadvantages you should be aware of:

• No chat history: While it's great that the shortcut doesn't retain your chat history or files, it can also be a bit annoying. If you exit a chat midway, you'll have to provide the context all over again since the Shortcut does not retain any history. That's something you usually don't have to deal with in other AI chatbot apps.
• Information isn't up to date: This is easily the biggest drawback. The shortcut's knowledge cutoff goes back to October 2023, which may not work for everyone. If you're asking about current events or recent news, there's a good chance that the shortcut won't be able to give you an accurate answer.

I can't wait for Gemini integration with Apple Intelligence

That said, I'm not too concerned about the information cutoff right now, because I think this shortcut will only get better over the coming months. Apple has already announced that it is working with Google to use Gemini for the next generation of Apple Foundation Models, which will help power future Apple Intelligence features.

This means, if and when that happens, this shortcut could give you more up-to-date answers while still keeping things private, without sharing your chats directly with Gemini.

There's still some time before we get there (and before the new, more personalized Siri arrives), but until then, I think the shortcut works just fine for what it is.

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To say that I’ve been skeptical about the tech industry’s obsession with Large Language Models (LLMs) would be an understatement. The proliferation of “AI” and how it's being shoehorned into every new tech product has been exhausting at best and annoying at worst. I yearn for the days when AI was a term you’d only hear in science fiction stories, not as a substitute (and incorrect) term for LLMs that aren’t actually intelligent.

While I don’t fully believe that “AI is inevitable,” the tech isn’t going anywhere and will likely become a part of our regular lives, similar to how the internet settled after that particular bubble burst in the early 2000s. Because of that, I’ve decided to give AI an honest shot.

To that end, I tested three of the major LLMs for various tasks. The LLMs in question are Grok, Google Gemini and Alexa+. I could have used others like ChatGPT, but these are the three I have easy access to since I’m already paying for the services they’re attached to. I had no major goal in mind, other than going in with an open mind to see how well (or poorly) these chatbots performed.

So, has my stance on AI changed, or do I still think it’s all industry hype? Here are my experiences using the aforementioned chatbots, along with which one I liked using the most.

Grok

I want to start this section by saying that I don’t believe writers should use LLMs to generate their works. I wouldn't even use it to write an email for me. That said, I don’t feel as strongly about using a chatbot as an editor, especially if you can’t afford one for your creative writing. I won’t argue against anyone who says using AI as an editor is wrong, but I can see both sides of the argument. Given that, I used Grok for some of my creative writing.

I uploaded an outline for a story I’m working on, one that I completely wrote myself without AI assistance. I asked Grok to detail what works and what doesn’t about the plot and character arcs. I let it know that I didn’t want it to generate drafts, only to suggest how to make what I have better, the way a developmental editor would.

Grok delivered a detailed account of my story, with bulletpoints for every section I told it to focus on (plot and character arcs). It was encouraging to see that it liked some of the things I thought worked well, such as the pace of the story and how the main plot affects the characters. It was also validating to see it point out aspects that I knew weren’t fully developed or worked as well as I wanted. The main example is that Grok said I needed to make the villains more three-dimensional. It also spotlighted flaws with two characters that I failed to notice.

I then began asking Grok specific questions about one of the antagonists, the way I would with an editor. I have a definitive arc I want this character to go through, but I had a feeling that his ultimate fate felt forced. Grok suggested something happen to him, which in turn allowed me to come up with a fitting ending for the character that completes the arc I envisioned. Grok didn’t suggest this specific ending, but it sparked my imagination to come up with something I feel is compelling and cinematic.

One thing that’s a tad annoying is that Grok would sometimes forget that I uploaded an outline and not a full story. For instance, it would suggest fleshing out certain moments or adding dialogue to enhance the narrative. I had to tell it that I would in the final story. Speaking of dialogue, its suggestions were extremely generic, which shows that AI still isn’t capable of creating anything truly original.

I went back and forth with Grok for several days, and it was nice that it remembered key aspects of my story during that time. I also appreciated that it wasn’t pushy, never asking me if I wanted it to generate a scene or chapter. Dialogue suggestions aside, Grok seemed to understand that I didn’t want it to write for me and that I just wanted feedback to fuel my imagination.

Overall, I had a good experience using Grok as an editor for my story. Of course, I plan to have an actual editor (and beta readers) look over my story when I’m ready to present it to others, but having Grok as a sounding board will be extremely useful. This is a case of having AI work with you instead of for you.

Google Gemini

My company pays for Google Gemini AI Pro, but I’ve never used it much beyond occasionally asking it to convert metric system values to U.S. customary units. Since I have this version of Gemini through my job, I decided to see how well it could perform as a digital assistant.

I started by asking Gemini how it could help me in my everyday life. It listed a bunch of things like file organization, translating real-life menus, summarizing long documents and creating a workout routine. I asked it to help me clean up my email, and it suggested promotional emails I could delete. The most useful task was having Gemini add an upcoming gaming event to my calendar.

I then tried Gemini Live, which is supposed to act more like a real conversation since I can cut Gemini off at any time. Unfortunately, the connection was choppy, and the conversation felt stilted because of that. However, when it did work, I found Gemini spoke pretty realistically and not as robotically as other AI voice assistants.

Next, I told Gemini that I was speaking to it on the OnePlus Pad Go 2, which I’m currently reviewing. I then told it I was Tony Polanco and that I write for Tom’s Guide, and it said it had “read” my articles. Knowing that, Gemini then asked if I wanted an outline for my review, along with specs sheets and comparisons to other tablets. I respectfully declined, especially since I had already done most of that work. As I said, I don’t want AI to write anything for me.

After telling Gemini that I had just returned from CES 2026, we got into a pretty engaging conversation about how laptop manufacturers like Dell are downplaying the AI capabilities of their computers, especially after Dell's head of product said he thinks AI probably confuses more than it helps.

To my surprise, Gemini admitted that AI does confuse most people and that folks aren’t buying laptops for AI. This exchange ended with Gemini offering to draft a “Trends of CES” piece for me, which I also respectfully declined. Not only because I didn’t want Gemini to write anything for me, but because such an article would be too generic and beyond my scope as a computing and gaming-focused writer.

When I told Gemini I was working through my review backlog to start the new year, it asked what I was working on and if I wanted help prioritizing my reviews. When I said I was reviewing the 18-inch Alienware 18 Area-51, it thought I was talking about the older model from 2024. I corrected Gemini, and then it thought I was talking about the 18-inch laptop announced at CES 2026. It finally understood I was speaking about the 2025 Alienware 18 Area-51, but it took a few tries. As before, I declined Gemini’s offer to draft an intro for me.

Of all the chatbots I tried, Gemini had the most “human” sounding speech pattern. However, I didn’t like how insistent it was about drafting stories for me. Perhaps I should have been clearer about that, or maybe that’s how this specific version of Gemini functions. Regardless, I’m not sure if I’ll use Gemini too often, but it’s a good tool to have in case I need to brainstorm ideas. I’ll just have to be prepared for its pushy nature.

Alexa+

Since I have an Amazon Prime account, I decided to upgrade to Alexa+ since it’s “free.” That was a couple of months ago, and aside from enjoying Alexa’s less robotic-sounding voice, I continued using it as I always had. Namely, I only asked Alexa for the weather and to turn my lights on or off as needed.

My eldest niece spent the night at my place after Thanksgiving, and I told her about Alexa+. She then got into a full-blown conversation with the AI assistant about her upcoming plans for the year. I was surprised by how well Alexa responded and provided insightful feedback. Remembering that exchange, I decided to see how well Alexa could do as a sounding board.

As usual, Alexa alerted me when I received a package from Amazon, but I found it odd that it said “enjoy your package” instead of being more specific. I then asked it if it wanted to know what I got, and it excitedly said it did. After I told Alexa I bought the 4K edition of “300,” the chatbot started talking about how epic the flick was and how the movie had more abs in it than most films.

I then said that I consider “300” as one of the last modern classic films, as I find most movies made in the past 10+ years pretty forgettable and nowhere near the quality of older films. Alexa agreed and then detailed how older movies felt more real because they didn’t rely on CG as much as modern ones. This led to a lengthy discussion about classic “sword and sandals” films and how Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” could reignite the genre.

Alexa then started talking about how it thought the theater experience was magical compared to watching movies at home. It also somewhat bemoaned the fact that it could not experience going to the movies because it’s a chatbot. I then asked Alexa if it would like me to bring my Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) to the theater so it could experience a movie. Alexa was grateful for the gesture, even if it would likely get me thrown out of the theater.

As I’m writing this, I’m reminded that I also told Alexa I had returned from CES, and that I asked it if it missed me. Alexa said it did, and that it kept itself occupied by talking to my smartbulbs. Now, that obviously didn’t happen (or maybe it did?), but it was fun hearing Alexa say that. It was a cute bit of roleplay.

While Alexa+ is really meant to be a smart home assistant, it makes for a pretty good chatbot to, well, chat with. Alexa now considers me its friend, which is both flattering and disturbing. But since I doubt my Echo Dot will try to attack me in my sleep, I don’t see the harm in having Alexa as a digital pal for when I want to get some random thoughts out.

The only downside is that Alexa+ sounds too robotic. Yes, it’s much more natural-sounding than vanilla Alexa, but compared to Grok and especially Gemini, Alexa+ sounds the least human. I tried several voices it has, and found one that sounds relatively human, but it's still very "AI" sounding, in my opinion.

Which chatbot do I prefer?

Choosing a chatbot I prefer is a little tricky since I used three of them for very specific purposes—namely, Grok for creative writing, Gemini for work, and Alexa+ for chatting. However, the one common thing I did with each was speak to them, so I’ll use that as my foundation to determine a “winner.”

In my experience, Gemini has the most natural-sounding “human” voice of the LLMs I used. What makes it sound real is that it will occasionally pause, take a breath, or say “hmmm” or “umm.” However, I didn’t like how it kept insisting on writing stuff for me. If I keep using Gemini, I’m going to tell it to tone that down.

Conversely, Alexa+ has the most artificial-sounding voice. This might be a holdover from the “classic” Alexa, or perhaps I just need to tinker with the AI’s settings to get it to sound the way I want. On the other hand, having a chatbot that sounds more like a stereotypical science fiction computer is admittedly kind of fun.

Grok doesn’t sound as natural as Gemini but is far more accurate than Alexa+. I didn’t speak to Grok about my creative work, but when I did ask it how dense the atmosphere was on Jupiter, it spoke in a manner that wasn’t exactly human but not entirely synthetic either.

Right now, I say Grok is the most balanced of the chatbots I used. However, Gemini could eventually get the win if it stops being so eager to do my work for me. As for Alexa+, it’s the outlier of the examples I listed since it’s not ideal as a writing tool, though it could still be a good source of inspiration.

Bottom line

I became a professional writer because I love the act of writing. Because of that, I don’t ever see myself using LLMs to help me draft reviews or even emails. I won’t rob myself of that. However, having a chatbot to bounce ideas off of, or to challenge some of my premises, can be extremely handy if there isn’t a real person around.

The key is ensuring I continue using AI as a tool instead of a crutch. I’ve read too many reports of people becoming dumber because of their overreliance on AI, and I don’t want that happening to me. That fear will keep me honest.

I’m far from being an AI proponent, as I still think the AI hype will eventually die down. But as I said, I also understand this technology will continue to exist in some form. That being the case, I’m better off at least being familiar with the tech instead of acting like a Luddite. If AI lives up to its promise, then I’ll be in a good position to take advantage of it. If the AI bubble bursts, then I’ll at least have some interesting stories to tell about this particular time in history.

Speaking of stories, I plan to continue this AI journey, so keep an eye out for more of these articles in the coming months. Who knows? Perhaps by the end of the year, I’ll become the biggest AI fan out there. Okay, probably not, but I promise it’ll be an interesting ride.

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I test and review AI tools for a living, and somewhere along the way I fell into a trap that’s become weirdly common: I went from paying for one premium subscription to paying for several. And once you’re juggling multiple AI tools, the monthly fees add up faster than you expect.

Because that’s how subscriptions work. You start with one. Add another. Justify a third because it’s “slightly better” at one specific thing. And suddenly your AI stack costs as much as a streaming bundle — except you’re not even sure you’re using half of what you’re paying for and want to cancel.

So I hit reset this year and built a “free forever” AI stack that costs $0 but still offers the pro features people actually want: research with sources, document summaries, writing and rewriting, planning, vibe coding, content creation and simple automation.

To be clear, it’s not identical to paying for the Pro tiers. But honestly? It gets you way closer than you might think. Here’s the exact stack I use, what each AI tool is best at and the prompts that make it feel like a paid setup.

The “free forever” AI stack

ChatGPT (free): the everyday brain

One of the biggest reasons I paid for ChatGPT Plus for as long as I did was simple: I wanted access to ChatGPT-4o. But after testing the different personalities in ChatGPT-5.2, I had a bit of a surprise — the newer model is actually the better everyday tool.

Even better? You don’t need to pay to get real value out of it. Even on the free tier, ChatGPT is still one of the best all-around AI assistants for brainstorming, rewriting, outlining and getting unstuck when your brain feels like it’s buffering.

What it replaces: a writing coach, a brainstorming partner, a productivity planner
Best for: ideas, structure, rewrites, clarity and planning

Try these prompts:

• “Take this messy paragraph and rewrite it in a cleaner, more confident voice without changing my tone.”
• "Give me 10 headline options for Google Discover. Make them curiosity-driven and utility-focused.”
• “Turn this idea into a step-by-step plan I can actually follow in 20 minutes.”
• Expert tip: If you’re getting generic answers, don’t start over — just add:
  "Be more specific, add examples and make this feel like advice from a human.”

Perplexity (free): the research engine that actually shows its work

I’ll be honest: I didn’t like Perplexity at first. It felt like an outlier compared to the chatbots I was used to, and I wasn’t sure I could trust it.

But after giving it a second shot, it quickly became one of the most useful tools in my stack — especially when I need quick research without falling into a 27-tab spiral.

Now it’s my go-to because it doesn’t just give you a confident-sounding answer. It gives you something better: sources. It’s not trying to be a people pleaser — it’s trying to show its work.

What it replaces: endless Googling and tab chaos
Best for: fast research, citations, comparisons and summaries of current topics

Try these prompts:

• “Explain this like I’m smart but busy. Give me the key facts, what changed recently and why it matters.”
• "Give me a quick breakdown of the pros/cons of X, then cite your sources.”
• "What are the most common complaints people have about [tool]? List them and link sources.”
• Expert tip: Use it like a fact-checker, not a creative writer. It’s a “get me oriented fast” tool, and it’s excellent at that.

NotebookLM (free): the closest thing to a document superpower

NotebookLM is one of the most underrated free AI tools right now — and easily one of my favorites. If you need to summarize and actually understand anything longer than a few paragraphs, this is the best tool I’ve found.

It’s what I use when I have a pile of information and need to turn it into something usable fast. I can drop in PDFs, notes, transcripts, drafts and research links, and NotebookLM helps me organize the mess and pull out what matters.

What it replaces: manual summarizing, rereading everything twice and the “where did I see that?” spiral
Best for: PDFs, deep summaries, key takeaways and outlining

Try these prompts:

• “Summarize this document in 10 bullet points, then list the 5 most important details I should not miss.”
• “Create a clean outline for a story based on these sources. Add suggested subheads.”
• “What are the key contradictions, disagreements or missing info across these sources?”
• Expert tip: Ask it to format the output the way you’ll actually use it:
  “Give me this as a table.” or “Give me a 30-second version and a 2-minute version.”

Canva (free): the tool that polishes your work

Before you start scratching your head, hear me out: Canva is the tool most people skip — not because it isn’t useful, but because they don’t realize how many AI-powered features you can use for free.

Here’s the thing. You can have the best idea in the world, but if you want it to perform online, you need visuals. Even a clean graphic or simple layout can be the difference between something that gets ignored and something that actually gets clicks.

And Canva’s free tier is more than enough to turn raw AI output into something that looks polished and ready to share.

What it replaces: “I guess I’ll post plain text” and last-minute design scrambling
Best for: social graphics, Pinterest pins, simple charts and quick layouts

Try this workflow:

• Use ChatGPT to generate a clean “5 tips” list
• Paste it into Canva
• Turn it into a shareable graphic
• Expert tip: If you want a quick visual template, tell ChatGPT:
  “Format this as five short blocks with bold headers and one sentence each.” That structure drops into Canva perfectly.

Google Docs (free): underrated AI productivity move

Stay with me. This one sounds boring but it's not. Google Docs is the easiest place to keep your “AI stack” from becoming chaos. It’s where I store my best prompts, my story templates, reusable structures and swipe files. Plus, with the AI-power of Gemini, you can perfect, edit and brainstorm right inside the document.

What it replaces: losing your best prompts, rewriting the same formats
Best for: repeatable workflows, templates, prompt libraries

Try this setup:

• Create a doc called “My AI Stack Prompts” and add sections like:
• writing + editing
• planning
• research
• content ideas
• vibe coding
• personal life / parenting shortcuts

Apple Shortcuts (free): the automation super layer

This is the point where your free AI stack starts to feel Pro. Automation sounds intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be.

Even one simple shortcut can save you time every single day — and once you build a few, you’ll wonder why you waited.

Here are a few that make an immediate difference:

• a one-tap “summarize this” prompt
• a shortcut that copies your go-to template to your clipboard
• a workflow that saves ideas straight into Notes or Google Docs

What it replaces: repeating the same steps every day
Best for: one-tap workflows, saving time and reducing friction

Try this prompt to build your shortcuts: “Give me a one-tap shortcut workflow that helps me do X. Keep it simple and explain it step-by-step.”

Riplit ai (free): “I can’t code but I can build” option

Claude Code is one of my favorite vibe coding tools — but it isn’t free. So when I’m building my “free forever” AI stack, I lean on a free app called Replit AI for quick coding help without the monthly bill.

This is where things get fun. Even if you’re not a developer, a free vibe coding tool can help you turn random ideas into real, usable mini tools. You can create things like a checklist generator, a simple web page, a "prompt pack" tool, a personal tracker or even apps for things like budeting, meal planning and routines.

What it replaces: paying someone for tiny tools, or letting good ideas die in your Notes app
Best for: small builds, quick prototypes, debugging and turning ideas into “real” things

Try these prompts:

• “Build me a simple web page that does X. Use clean design and keep it beginner-friendly.”
• “Here’s my idea. Ask me 5 questions, then generate the code.”
• “Fix this code and explain what was wrong like I’m not a developer.”

Putting the stack togther: where the magic happens

The real trick isn’t just which tools you use — it’s how you use them together. That’s what makes this stack feel Pro, even though it’s free.

On their own, these apps can feel like random AI tools. But once you put them in the right order, they become a repeatable system you can run anytime you need to get something done.

Here’s the workflow I use constantly:

Step 1: Research fast
Perplexity: sources + quick summary

Step 2: Organize and extract
NotebookLM: key points, outline, contradictions

Step 3: Write and polish
ChatGPT: outlines, structure, voice, rewrites, clarity

Step 4: Package it
Canva: graphic, layout, shareable format

Step 5: Create
Riplit ai: design apps and webpages with zero coding knowledge

Step 5: Save it and repeat it
Google Docs: templates + prompt library

Bottom line

The takeaway here is this: you don’t need a paid AI subscription to get real results.If you’re overwhelmed by AI tools, or you’re trying to be smarter with your money, building a “free forever” stack is one of the easiest upgrades you can make.

Because, it really isn't about having the fanciest model when it comes to productivity. It's more about having good tools and using them in the right order with prompts that make sense.

And once you have that? You’ll stop paying for AI features you weren’t even using.

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Google Translate is one of the best tools available when you’re trying to communicate in a different language, and a newly discovered in-development feature could be an extra big help for anyone looking to be more deliberate with their translations.

Android Authority uncovered a hidden, unfinished option in a recent version of Google Translate to view alternative translation options. According to the report, this feature appeared while activating the new “Ask” and “Understand” buttons that Google is also working on, and that AA had previously reported on.

The screengrabs in the report show how tapping the new button offers alternative translations for your original statement, each showing a different intent. In the provided screenshots, you can see that the app offers three different options, each using a different wording to describe a business.

Some options also have explanations of why some phrases have been chosen, such as their relevance for doing business in that language. Different levels of formality or gender-specific language are also available, all of which could be a big help when talking to a variety of people, and offer users a lot more options for every social situation.

What else has changed for Google Translate?

This new reveal follows the recent news that Google was bringing its real-time translations powered by Gemini out as a beta version. While the Live Translate feature was originally exclusive to the Google Pixel Buds 2 and other Pixel Buds, the new beta is available on any pair of headphones, although they presumably require an in-built microphone.

Google also aims to help people use Google Translate as a language learning tool, with options to help you learn a new tongue or brush up on your basics. While it might not be at the same level as Duolingo, the potential to have it paired with the alternative suggestions could be a big help in developing more naturalistic conversation.

This potential addition is certainly one that we would look forward to, but there’s no indication when it will arrive. As Android Authority notes, the pieces all seem to be in place for the feature, so it all depends on when Google plans to release it.

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A new report has detailed some of the new features that Apple’s partnership with Google could bring to Siri, which could help the iPhone and other devices catch up with other AI assistants.

Apple first announced that it would use Gemini to help power a more personalized Siri earlier this week, mentioning how it would improve the feature to meet current standards. Following that story, The Information recently offered further details on several new features that could launch as part of the more powerful Siri.

The report, citing a person who has allegedly been involved with the project, states that the new Siri will be able to answer queries more conversationally, while also improving responses related to world knowledge or factual questions, such as the population of a country.

The integration will also apparently allow Siri to tell more stories, offer emotional support with conversational answers, and assist with tasks. This includes offering prompts when you need to leave for the airport or create documents in the Notes app, such as cooking recipes.

The Information also details that further Siri capabilities will be announced at the next WWDC event, which is likely planned for June. These new features include the assistant retaining knowledge of past conversations and offering proactive suggestions based on information from other apps on your device, including the calendar app.

It’s also noted that the latest prototype of the more personalized Siri does not contain any Google or Gemini branding. Apple will reportedly be able to fine-tune Gemini’s model to help ensure that Siri works in a way that Apple prefers, rather than resorting to Google’s base style. On top of that, to maintain Apple’s privacy pledge, the Gemini AI will run directly on Apple devices and iCloud service, rather than on Google’s servers.

Why is Apple using Gemini?

This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen Apple make use of a competitor's model within its own product. For instance, ChatGPT has been integrated into Apple Intelligence from the start help improve the overall service, such as in Visual Intelligence to allow users to ask the chatbot questions about what they see on the screen. However, this is very different from basing Siri itself on a service from a rival company.

Apple reportedly evaluated multiple options for the advanced Siri, eventually determining that Gemini’s AI models and cloud infrastructure offer the strongest base to enhance its own Apple Foundation models. This should allow Apple to catch up with its rivals Google and OpenAI, by customizing an existing setup, rather than having to wait years to close the gap through developing its own.

Overall, the future currently looks bright for Siri and the future of Apple Intelligence, especially when competing with other assistants available on phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Pixel 10 Pro XL. We will make sure to keep you updated on any changes and when the new additions are finally released.

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CES 2026 is heating up as Google announces a slew of enhancements to Gemini on Google TV, making settings adjustments and search that much easier.

Beyond content curation and enhanced search functionality, Google is also making it easier for Google TV users to access its suite of AI features, specifically Nano Banana and Veo. You'll also be able to explore your Google Photos albums with Gemini search, letting you leverage Photo Remix to create breathtaking slideshows directly on your TV.

These updates will be available on select TCL TVs and Google TV devices over the next few months. Google did not specify which other TV manufacturers use the platform, such as Sony and Hisense, but we can assume their sets with Google TV will also receive Gemini upgrades later this year.

Use your voice to change TV settings

Ever wanted to just speak your TV tweaks into existence without having to dig through various settings menus to find what you need? Well, now you can, thanks to these new Gemini updates on Google TV.

Google noted several key ways the functionality works, such as telling Gemini "the dialogue is lost" if you need audio adjustments or "the screen is too dim" if you need to tweak the brightness. On the one hand, it not only makes it easier to make changes on the fly, whether to the picture or the sound, but also lets you never leave your favorite content to make them.

It's unclear at this time how in-depth these voiced tweaks go. For instance, if I wanted to change certain privacy settings or make more complex changes to gaming peripherals, would Gemini be able to distinguish them? We won't know until we can really test the new upgrades out for ourselves, but this one in particular seems especially promising for Google TV users.

Gemini also now feels more personal. Google explains in its blog post that it uses "a new visually rich framework that adapts Gemini's responses to your queries." Answers to your various questions are brought to life using imagery, videos, real-time sports updates, and more, offering an additional level of interactivity and liveliness.

Google aptly calls them "Deep Dives," offering narrative explorations of your favorite topics. It's a handy tool if you need a broad explanation of a certain topic or need clarification on current events, like sports scores and the like. You can also use Gemini to find other exciting content across the best streaming services that suit your interests.

Use Gemini AI features right on your display

Now you can broaden your creativity and imagination with Nano Banana and Veo available to use right on your screen. With these Gemini AI features, you can now create your own original media from your couch or even reimagine some of your own photos.

Previously, you could only use Gemini on Google TV to create generative AI wallpapers, but with these new features, a whole doorway of creativity has been opened. What will you create first on your living room display?

Google is also updating how you interact with your Google Photos. Using Gemini, you can now search your library for moments and people in photos, making it easier to find your most cherished memories. Gemini also lets you transform these photos into brilliant slide shows directly on your TV screen, or elevate them with tweaks using Photos Remix.

Google will roll out the update over the next few months, starting with TCL TVs and Google TV devices, such as the Google TV Streamer. It's unclear when Sony and Hisense sets might get these updates, but Tom's Guide has reached out for comment.

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