😸 Our honest review of Gemini

PLUS: Apple Intelligence launches today!

Welcome, humans.

Last week we told you about a new AI video model called MiniMax, and already, creators have been generating some seriously wild content with it:

The quality is legit, but it’s becoming abundantly clear we need to hard-code some sort of physics engines into AI video models.

They feel like dreams, where bizarre things suddenly happen that don’t make any sense in the real world. Like check out this video of Oprah’s famous “You get a car” meme gone wild…

That said, human curation of what clips end up in the final cut is always key. When done right, you can wind up with something as “unexpectedly charming” as this short film about a micro astronaut…

Here’s what you need to know about AI today:

We give our honest review of Google's Gemini AI in Workspace apps.
Apple will release the iPhone 16 with AI features today.
AI lobbyist numbers in Washington D.C. have increased by 190%.
California passed over a dozen AI bills this year.

Advertise in The Neuron here.

What it’s actually like to use Gemini in Google Workspace.

Example of Gemini in use on an early draft of this article

If you're like us, you've probably been sleeping on using Google Gemini directly inside Google Workspace.

Gemini can be used in Google Docs, Sheets, Gmail, and Slides with a Gemini Advanced account (just click the Gemini diamond button in the top right).

Many people we've talked to have been slow to adopt Gemini, and for good reason: the chatbot is infamous for its endless errors and controversies.

We decided to give Gemini another shot. Here's what we learned…

What Gemini is good at:

Google Docs: Auto-summarizing content, providing suggestions, and rewriting documents.
Gmail: Effective for targeted tasks like searching emails for relevant content, summarizing emails, or extracting links.

For example, Gemini accurately listed AI-related emails from a specific date and summarized a newsletter, even extracting most links.

Where Gemini struggles:

Google Sheets: Data analysis is limited to small quantities. Large datasets may cause timeouts or inaccurate results.
Google Slides: Helps create individual slides but struggles with consistent designs.

Example: We tested Gemini on a 33K row spreadsheet of U.S. zip codes, and:

Auto-summary timed out.
Couldn't generate insights (even incomplete ones).
Failed to create a population calculation formula (a task Gemini itself recommended).

Now, we recognize these failures could be at least partially due to our status as Gemini prompting noobs.

So here are some tips Google recommends from its own prompting guide:

Structure your prompts with #1 Persona, #2 Task, #3 Context, and #4 Format.
Use natural language and specific requests (like tone and constraints).
Break complex tasks into smaller prompts.

Example of Gemini’s prompt recommendations.

Our advice: For now, use Gemini for generating new content from scratch (instead of working with existing content, where it’s less reliable), and consider plugging complex requests directly into Gemini Advanced's chatbot instead.

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Around the Horn.

Bonus: Here’s a soda commercial, too.

Apple will release its new iPhone 16 models today, which will come with some of its new Apple Intelligence Ai features (though not the ChatGPT integration). Watch the event here.
AI lobbyists in Washington D.C. have increased by 190%, and are trying to convince U.S. regulators not to go the route of regulators in Europe.
Over a dozen AI bills have been passed in California, where most of the major AI developments have been happening.

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CX Genie enhances customer support with automated chatbots, ticketing systems, and workflow management tools.
Format Magic converts plain text into professionally formatted documents and résumés with intelligent templates and styling.
Trupeer.ai transforms screen recordings into polished product videos and detailed documentation.
VideoGen creates and edits videos automatically with narration, stock footage, and easy editing tools.

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What gives it away that this is AI?

Speaking of MiniMax going off the rails… this video of Gordon Ramsey is like a Master Chef anxiety dream come to life.

Your job is to tell us what about the video below gives it away as being AI. Click the link, watch the vid, and then answer the poll with your best take!