AI and Product Degredation
Published on: Jun 17, 2024Filed under: Technology
The other day I had a late meeting and needed to make sure I picked up dog food on the way home. I grabbed my phone - a Pixel - and did the same thing I’ve done for years. I triggered the voice input and told my phone, “Remind me to buy dog food at 7:30pm”
Pixel phones were recently updated to using Gemini, but the implementation isn’t done nor is it thorough. So, the microphone input on my phone is just a speech-to-tech entry that dumps me into a google web search result. This is a net new function, and it’s one that reduces the usefulness of my device by removing a frequently used feature.
That’s bad.
I figured out how to trigger the Gemini-powered Android Assistant and tried the same query, only to be told that the feature wasn’t available yet.
AI is supposed to improve experiences.
As every company rushes to incorporate a LLM or Foundation model of their very own - seemingly to appease shareholders - a lot seem to forget that users don’t care about what model you’re using, they care about if the product makes their lives easier.