Gemini's new AI agent is about as good as Google's demo

Google's new '24/7' AI agent, Gemini Spark, can be shockingly good at doing things on your behalf. But I'm not sure it's worth the financial cost and potential privacy tradeoffs. The company gave me access to Spark last week.

Google advertises Spark as an AI agent that can take on tasks and work on them in the background - even tasks that have multiple steps - allowing you to put your phone down or walk away from your computer. It also advertises at the very top of the Spark website that it's 'always under your direction,' that 'you choose to turn it on,' and that 'it's designed to check with you before taking major actions.' Given the mounting concerns over AI's capabilities and limitations, I was eager to put Spark to the test. The results were mixed, to say the least.

While Spark was able to complete some tasks with impressive efficiency, it stumbled over others, revealing the still-raw edges of this nascent technology. As I experimented with Spark, I began to wonder whether its benefits outweigh its drawbacks. For one, there's the financial cost: using Spark may require a significant investment of time and money.

And then there's the issue of privacy: by allowing Spark to work on your behalf, you're potentially exposing sensitive information to Google's data collection machinery. Despite these reservations, I was still impressed by Spark's capabilities. When it works, it can be a powerful tool for getting things done.

But as Google continues to develop and refine this technology, it will need to address these concerns head-on in order to win over skeptical users like myself.