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It needs to be powered by generative AI because its purpose is to be powered be generative AI. Look at the way it's phrased: not "to improve the user experienc

It needs to be powered by generative AI because its purpose is to be powered be generative AI. Look at the way it's phrased: not "to improve the user experience" but "to bring generative AI to Google Maps". This is Google top brass telling everyone explicitly that their products need to incorporate generative AI, and product leads brainstorming ways to do that. The is not trying to solve a problem that users have, but a problem that Google has. (FWIW I say this as someone who's optimistic that there is really something there behind the AI hype. But this ain't it).

giantrobot 3y ago
A map, ostensibly representing real geography, is the last place I want some AI confabulation. It's bad enough when Google sends people down side roads to gauge traffic on them, now it'll just fantasize routes and locations.
windexh8er 3y ago
This is the problem, 100%. The fact that Google isn't optimizing, or even building Google Maps for its users anymore - but checking the GenAI box showcases the internal shift from engineering led management to KPI driven management. From an outsiders perspective it seems like Sundar is fine with telling everyone in Google: "Your objective is - take this square peg and shove it everywhere". I don't want GenAI in all of Google's ecosystem. I've already taken broad steps to de-Google many other important things. I guess my next step is to protect myself from Google and go fully back into the alternate Android ecosystem. Thankfully I have a secondary phone that I've been running Graphene on for the last year. Maybe Google's misdirected "everything GenAI" master plan is enough of a catalyst to push folks that have been dabbling on the edge to completely abandon Google. The piece that really pisses me off, however is to see the head first dive into the shallow end with all of this garbage in Google's AI for the Education space [0]. Kids do not need to be subject to this impending trainwreck. [0] https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_us/why-google/ai-for-education/ https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_us/why-google/ai-for-educati...

giantrobot 3y ago

A map, ostensibly representing real geography, is the last place I want some AI confabulation. It's bad enough when Google sends people down side roads to gauge traffic on them, now it'll just fantasize routes and locations.

windexh8er 3y ago

This is the problem, 100%. The fact that Google isn't optimizing, or even building Google Maps for its users anymore - but checking the GenAI box showcases the internal shift from engineering led management to KPI driven management. From an outsiders perspective it seems like Sundar is fine with telling everyone in Google: "Your objective is - take this square peg and shove it everywhere". I don't want GenAI in all of Google's ecosystem. I've already taken broad steps to de-Google many other important things. I guess my next step is to protect myself from Google and go fully back into the alternate Android ecosystem. Thankfully I have a secondary phone that I've been running Graphene on for the last year. Maybe Google's misdirected "everything GenAI" master plan is enough of a catalyst to push folks that have been dabbling on the edge to completely abandon Google. The piece that really pisses me off, however is to see the head first dive into the shallow end with all of this garbage in Google's AI for the Education space [0]. Kids do not need to be subject to this impending trainwreck. [0] https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_us/why-google/ai-for-education/ https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_us/why-google/ai-for-educati...