alt Hacker NewsIt's really bizarre at this point. I'm okay with things like having one-click options for simple replies like "That time works for me" (Google Messages on Android is hilariously bad at these but it's at least useful occasionally). I'm not okay with it suggesting a whole point-by-point response to someone else.
Today I had an email from a colleague where it had a suggested reply so large it didn't fit in the preview box. The response was the usual LLM "sounds good but doesn't say anything" prose. It's not just unhelpful — it's a waste of everyone's time!
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It’s not bizarre once you realize it raised some team’s engagement metrics (like # of emails sent) by 2%, a result they were unable to achieve otherwise, so they shipped it and celebrated a win
Are we shocked, really? We have evidence from discovery of them actively making search results worse to pad query volume. Of course they’re using enabled-by-default, run-without-asking AI features to pad Gemini usage.
The Valley is tripping over themselves to convince the world fancy autocomplete is worth 800 billion.
I see what you did there :)
> it's a waste of everyone's time!
Plus it's a huge waste of natural resources for the energy usage!
One could argue the “That time works for me” prompts are also a waste of time, especially when only occasionally useful. Do we really need a button to type 5 words on an occasional basis?
I’ve used the button before, but I think my life would be exactly the same without it.