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For regular consumers, Gemini's AI pro plan is a tough one to beat. The chat quality has gotten much better, I am able to share my plan with a couple more peopl

For regular consumers, Gemini's AI pro plan is a tough one to beat. The chat quality has gotten much better, I am able to share my plan with a couple more people in my family leading to proper individual chat histories, I get 2 TB of extra storage (which is also sharable), plus some really nice stuff like NotebookLM, which has been amazing for doing research. Veo/Nanobanana are nice bonuses. It's easily worth the monthly cost, and I'm happy to pay - something which I didn't even consider doing a year ago. OpenAI just doesn't have the same bundle effect. Obviously power users and companies will likely consider Anthropic. I don't know what OpenAI's actual product moat is any more outside of a well-known name.

piva00 10mo ago
Through my work I have access to Google's, Anthropic's, and OpenAI's products, and I agree with you, I barely touch OpenAI's models/products for some reason even though I have total freedom to choose.
OutOfHere 10mo ago
I strongly advise never using Google's Drive storage. They're known to scan all content, and to disable all access if even a single file is "problematic", often misclassified by a bot. If you do use the storage, do backup all your files, and be ready to lose access at any time, with no way to reach any intelligent human.
- throwacct 10mo ago
  Which product do you recommend? OneDrive? Dropbox?
  - mattmaroon 10mo ago
    I have to imagine they are all on the lookout for CSAM. They’d simply have to be. If it goes beyond that then let me know.
    - OutOfHere 10mo ago
      There is no evidence that any storage service that offers E2E encryption does any scanning of adult content. Note that possessing significant adult content in non-E2E storage risks eventual misclassification by a bot.
      - mattmaroon 10mo ago
        Oh is Google Drive not E2E? I don’t really use it (or store large files like video on any of them) so I never looked into it.
        OutOfHere 10mo ago
        [dead]
  - gausswho 10mo ago
    They're all the same to restic.
  - deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
  - pcchristie 10mo ago
    Filen is quite good, is E2E encrypted and currently offering (final round of) lifetime plans for Black Friday. They are not super mature yet (though have been around for several years) so the product still has some improvements to be made, but I like it.
  - OutOfHere 10mo ago
    [dead]
- devsda 10mo ago
  Since we are on the topic of bans & Google, I have a question. How likely or difficult is it for Google to engage in, for lack of better word, "thought policing"? You ask your "private" AI assistant to answer a naughty question or help with problematic task(from Google's hidden list) and then you eventually face the ban hammer. Did anybody ever get banned for searching the wrong keywords?
  - Andrex 10mo ago
    > Did anybody ever get banned for searching the wrong keywords? No, but they probably pass clusters of (perceived to be) dangerous searches on to the Feds. Talking out my ass though.
    - greenavocado 10mo ago
      They do pass it on to the feds https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveillance-toddler-photo.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveil...
      - throwaway290 10mo ago
        > They do pass it on to the feds just like closedai, no? > we route their conversations to specialized pipelines where they are reviewed by a small team https://openai.com/index/helping-people-when-they-need-it-most/ https://openai.com/index/helping-people-when-they-need-it-mo...
  - staticman2 10mo ago
    If Google is smart they'd ban Gemini access while leaving services like Gmail enabled because otherwise customers wouldn't trust them and would avoid Gemini. I don't think there's any reports of banning from all Google services based on Gemini use.
- sometimes_all 10mo ago
  I agree with you 100%. We do syncs to another non-google storage account anyway, plus the google accounts are primarily for Android phone usage because photos and videos take up quite a big chunk of space now; they do not have any legitimately important files stored outside of photos sync and phone backups, so there is no deep loss if the account gets banned outside of some inconveniences.
- acuozzo 10mo ago
  Solution: Use Google Drive to backup a VeraCrypt volume?
- beAbU 10mo ago
  This has never happened to me in more than 5 years of paying for Google Drive. And my drive is chock full of bootleg books and movies and stuff. Having said that, an offline backup of a couple of terabytes will rarely break the bank and is not a bad idea at all. I probably need to get on that.
  - OutOfHere 10mo ago
    It happens more with adult content or files misclassified as such. It has happened to people. Secondly, a Google account can be disabled for a broader variety of reasons, not limited to the above causes.
carlosjobim 10mo ago
If we stop for a while and really consider the value of AI tools, then comparing them on price doesn't make much sense. Any of these tools give hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars of value per month to the user. With that in consideration they should mostly be compared on quality.
- aftbit 10mo ago
  The same thing is true for a _ton_ of tech products. My home internet plan easily gives me more than $1000 in value per month. My cell phone hardware probably gives me $2000+ in value over even a short 2 year life. Customers still tend to choose the cheapest option that meets requirements.
  - mattmaroon 10mo ago
    I don’t know, I ditched my ISP of many years as soon as a better option came up, even though it cost more, because it is much higher quality.
  - dist-epoch 10mo ago
    Home internet and cell phones are fungible. AI is not. If Internet would suddenly become $10k a month, maybe you would change country, or move to an office. If AI would suddenly become $10k you can't do anything about it.
    - aftbit 10mo ago
      If AI suddenly became $10k/month or even $1k/month, I would stop using it. It just doesn't provide that much value to me. If it did, I would probably find a way to use local models or some other approach to drive the cost down. If home internet became $1k/month, I would pay it. $10k, no - I just don't have the cashflow to support that. If I had to choose one of the three to give up, AI, home internet, or cellphone, I would give up AI. If I had to choose two, I'd give up my cell plan. Home internet is worth a ton of value and dollars to me.
- sometimes_all 10mo ago
venusenvy47 10mo ago
Do you happen to know if the AI features of the Google One 5TB plan is equivalent to the 2TB AI pro plan? It is so difficult to understand what actually comes with their plans, and I want to have the 5 TB storage for backups.
- sometimes_all 10mo ago
  Yeah it was an absolute nightmare trying to figure out the difference, and I still do not know the correct answer to this, and by the looks of it, neither does Google support, because they were as clueless as I was when I asked them about it. One thing I read on a reddit thread [1] was that the AI pro 2 TB plan explicitly allows sharing the AI and storage benefits when you enable family sharing on them, while the 5 TB plan doesn't. However, when I went to sign up, the 5 TB plan wasn't available at all! It's only their lite and basic plans (the one with 30 and 100 GB of storage); the 5TB one only showed up after I signed up for the pro plan, and judging by how the UX looked, you pay an extra amount on top of your AI pro plan. Now I definitely need family sharing, but I don't need the full 2 TB, let alone 5 TB, so I didn't bother checking further about the 5TB plan. Also, I am in India, maybe things are different in your region? [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleOne/comments/1nib21a/solved_google_one_ai_pro_2_tb_vs_5_tb_premium/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleOne/comments/1nib21a/solved_g...
- beAbU 10mo ago
  From what I can see the 2TB AI pro and 5TB (non AI) are the same, except the google drive storage. The difference between the AI and non-AI 2TB plan is 1000 AI "credits" (tokens?) vs 200. €120 p/a difference between the two for me which is huge.
adrr 10mo ago
Gemini also will answer most queries where ChatGpt won't do a lot of things. Example: "Create an image of Snow white". This will give the stand "Violates our content policy" even though the story was written hundreds of years ago. You can even point out the story is in the public domain and it still won't do it. I remember when it wouldn't even give me the lyrics to the star spangled banner. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44832990#44833365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44832990#44833365

piva00 10mo ago

Through my work I have access to Google's, Anthropic's, and OpenAI's products, and I agree with you, I barely touch OpenAI's models/products for some reason even though I have total freedom to choose.

OutOfHere 10mo ago

I strongly advise never using Google's Drive storage. They're known to scan all content, and to disable all access if even a single file is "problematic", often misclassified by a bot. If you do use the storage, do backup all your files, and be ready to lose access at any time, with no way to reach any intelligent human.

throwacct 10mo ago
Which product do you recommend? OneDrive? Dropbox?
- mattmaroon 10mo ago
  I have to imagine they are all on the lookout for CSAM. They’d simply have to be. If it goes beyond that then let me know.
  - OutOfHere 10mo ago
    There is no evidence that any storage service that offers E2E encryption does any scanning of adult content. Note that possessing significant adult content in non-E2E storage risks eventual misclassification by a bot.
    - mattmaroon 10mo ago
      Oh is Google Drive not E2E? I don’t really use it (or store large files like video on any of them) so I never looked into it.
      - OutOfHere 10mo ago
        [dead]
- gausswho 10mo ago
  They're all the same to restic.
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
- pcchristie 10mo ago
  Filen is quite good, is E2E encrypted and currently offering (final round of) lifetime plans for Black Friday. They are not super mature yet (though have been around for several years) so the product still has some improvements to be made, but I like it.
- OutOfHere 10mo ago
  [dead]
devsda 10mo ago
Since we are on the topic of bans & Google, I have a question. How likely or difficult is it for Google to engage in, for lack of better word, "thought policing"? You ask your "private" AI assistant to answer a naughty question or help with problematic task(from Google's hidden list) and then you eventually face the ban hammer. Did anybody ever get banned for searching the wrong keywords?
- Andrex 10mo ago
  > Did anybody ever get banned for searching the wrong keywords? No, but they probably pass clusters of (perceived to be) dangerous searches on to the Feds. Talking out my ass though.
  - greenavocado 10mo ago
    They do pass it on to the feds https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveillance-toddler-photo.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveil...
    - throwaway290 10mo ago
      > They do pass it on to the feds just like closedai, no? > we route their conversations to specialized pipelines where they are reviewed by a small team https://openai.com/index/helping-people-when-they-need-it-most/ https://openai.com/index/helping-people-when-they-need-it-mo...
- staticman2 10mo ago
  If Google is smart they'd ban Gemini access while leaving services like Gmail enabled because otherwise customers wouldn't trust them and would avoid Gemini. I don't think there's any reports of banning from all Google services based on Gemini use.
sometimes_all 10mo ago
I agree with you 100%. We do syncs to another non-google storage account anyway, plus the google accounts are primarily for Android phone usage because photos and videos take up quite a big chunk of space now; they do not have any legitimately important files stored outside of photos sync and phone backups, so there is no deep loss if the account gets banned outside of some inconveniences.
acuozzo 10mo ago
Solution: Use Google Drive to backup a VeraCrypt volume?
beAbU 10mo ago
This has never happened to me in more than 5 years of paying for Google Drive. And my drive is chock full of bootleg books and movies and stuff. Having said that, an offline backup of a couple of terabytes will rarely break the bank and is not a bad idea at all. I probably need to get on that.
- OutOfHere 10mo ago
  It happens more with adult content or files misclassified as such. It has happened to people. Secondly, a Google account can be disabled for a broader variety of reasons, not limited to the above causes.

carlosjobim 10mo ago

If we stop for a while and really consider the value of AI tools, then comparing them on price doesn't make much sense. Any of these tools give hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars of value per month to the user. With that in consideration they should mostly be compared on quality.

aftbit 10mo ago
The same thing is true for a _ton_ of tech products. My home internet plan easily gives me more than $1000 in value per month. My cell phone hardware probably gives me $2000+ in value over even a short 2 year life. Customers still tend to choose the cheapest option that meets requirements.
- mattmaroon 10mo ago
  I don’t know, I ditched my ISP of many years as soon as a better option came up, even though it cost more, because it is much higher quality.
- dist-epoch 10mo ago
  Home internet and cell phones are fungible. AI is not. If Internet would suddenly become $10k a month, maybe you would change country, or move to an office. If AI would suddenly become $10k you can't do anything about it.
  - aftbit 10mo ago
    If AI suddenly became $10k/month or even $1k/month, I would stop using it. It just doesn't provide that much value to me. If it did, I would probably find a way to use local models or some other approach to drive the cost down. If home internet became $1k/month, I would pay it. $10k, no - I just don't have the cashflow to support that. If I had to choose one of the three to give up, AI, home internet, or cellphone, I would give up AI. If I had to choose two, I'd give up my cell plan. Home internet is worth a ton of value and dollars to me.
sometimes_all 10mo ago

venusenvy47 10mo ago

Do you happen to know if the AI features of the Google One 5TB plan is equivalent to the 2TB AI pro plan? It is so difficult to understand what actually comes with their plans, and I want to have the 5 TB storage for backups.

sometimes_all 10mo ago
Yeah it was an absolute nightmare trying to figure out the difference, and I still do not know the correct answer to this, and by the looks of it, neither does Google support, because they were as clueless as I was when I asked them about it. One thing I read on a reddit thread [1] was that the AI pro 2 TB plan explicitly allows sharing the AI and storage benefits when you enable family sharing on them, while the 5 TB plan doesn't. However, when I went to sign up, the 5 TB plan wasn't available at all! It's only their lite and basic plans (the one with 30 and 100 GB of storage); the 5TB one only showed up after I signed up for the pro plan, and judging by how the UX looked, you pay an extra amount on top of your AI pro plan. Now I definitely need family sharing, but I don't need the full 2 TB, let alone 5 TB, so I didn't bother checking further about the 5TB plan. Also, I am in India, maybe things are different in your region? [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleOne/comments/1nib21a/solved_google_one_ai_pro_2_tb_vs_5_tb_premium/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleOne/comments/1nib21a/solved_g...
beAbU 10mo ago
From what I can see the 2TB AI pro and 5TB (non AI) are the same, except the google drive storage. The difference between the AI and non-AI 2TB plan is 1000 AI "credits" (tokens?) vs 200. €120 p/a difference between the two for me which is huge.

adrr 10mo ago

Gemini also will answer most queries where ChatGpt won't do a lot of things. Example: "Create an image of Snow white". This will give the stand "Violates our content policy" even though the story was written hundreds of years ago. You can even point out the story is in the public domain and it still won't do it. I remember when it wouldn't even give me the lyrics to the star spangled banner. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44832990#44833365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44832990#44833365