Google Assistant needs personality, Gemini is the solution

Google is currently focusing its efforts on AI. It already has a large-scale language model (LLM) called Gemini with multimodal capabilities and a user-facing chatbot in the form of Bard, which competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Bard has also recently added support for image generation, so it’s getting better and better every day. Google’s shifting priorities put Assistant on the back burner, creating a great voice bot that, unfortunately, has slowly lost both functionality and reliability.

In recent months, Google seems to have renewed its love for Assistant, promising more advanced features in the future. But what’s particularly interesting is that the awfully named Google Assistant, Bard, could be renamed to Gemini, potentially making this the biggest thing to happen to the Assistant in years. There is a gender.

What’s your name?

Nothing was more bland than the assistant

We’ve always argued that Google Assistant is much better than Alexa or Siri for regular tasks, but “Google Assistant” is an unimaginative name for a personal digital helper. This common name might not suggest that Google Assistant has a personality of its own, but even though Alexa and Siri are robots, virtual assistants don’t necessarily have to feel like robots. It proves that.

Beyond that, the assistant has some kind of oxymoronic wake phrase that doesn’t call it by name. To ask Alexa something, say “Alexa.” The same applies to Bixby and Siri. Apple even eliminated the need to start with “Hey,” leaving behind a simpler wake word: Siri. Google Assistant, on the other hand, requires you to say “OK Google” or “Hey Google,” neither of which include the bot’s actual name, making it more complicated than necessary.

It always felt like Google was forcing branding on the Assistant just for the sake of it, rather than giving it its own identity. Even Apple, the more arrogant of the two companies, doesn’t repeat its name over and over, and neither do Amazon or Samsung. If Google moves forward with rebranding the Assistant, the voice bot will shed the weight of its parent brand and take on an independent personality.

Its name is Gemini…Google Gemini

But there

At the Pixel 8 series launch event late last year, Google announced that it would soon launch a version of Google Assistant with enhanced generative AI called Assistant with Bird. It’s not an easy name to roll off the tongue, and Google knows it. I’ve been brainstorming a new name for “Assistant with Bard” for a while. First, they decided to just call it “Bard,” but a new report says Google could completely replace Bard’s branding with Gemini.

It would be a major effort to change the name of the product as it is known, while simultaneously encouraging people to change their habits of using existing wake phrases on their smartphones and Google Nest speakers. Still, there’s no better time for Google to roll out the name change than when it releases an improved Assistant with enhanced generative AI. The new Assistant is likely to be positioned as a new product with attractive features from Google’s LLM, allowing it to do more on your phone than the regular Assistant. And it can help you differentiate your new assistant from your old one without having to say their names every time.

However, you should still refrain from practicing saying “Gemini” to launch the voicebot, as the name can be confusing. Gemini was originally the name of Google’s GPT-4 alternative LLM. Reusing the same name for consumer products also complicates things, especially since LLM has even more complex levels: Gemini Nano (which runs natively on the Pixel 8 Pro), Pro, and Ultra. There is a possibility. Additionally, Google is preparing a paid version of Bard called Bard Advanced, so changing the title to Gemini Advanced would make it even more confusing.

Google Assistant on Pixel 8

Assistants need love, but

There’s no doubt that Google Assistant has been broken in recent months, with fragmented services and inconsistent voice recognition and responses. Google has recently removed some lesser-used Assistant features, saying it wants quality over quantity. Time will tell whether these measures are meant to make way for the big changes that come with Gemini’s rebrand.

Nevertheless, Google Assistant has been neglected for so long that people have started looking for alternatives. We can only hope that Google gives Assistant a much-needed overhaul and restores it to its lost glory.