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Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

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Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#101
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try Gemini live in a multi lingual environment. It can pick out speakers and live translate to you. Truly underrated for its capabilities.

I actually did (was going to travel internationally), and it wasn't as useful as you'd think. I would be talking to someone, and in the background someone else would be talking, and it would translate both people. Only worked in a 1:1 in a quiet place. Still, can't complain for free.

"Only worked in a 1:1 in a quiet place"

well then its not model problem

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For heavyweight work I have been using Astra, but for rabbit holes and brain storming Gemini is far more enjoyable to interact with. I'm worried in their push to catch up on the SOTA front, it's going to lose that natural sounding touch it currently has.

Agreed. My impression is that the more verbose output of sol, astra etc is that it helps it steer itself on long running tasks (but is worse for the human user to read)

Yes I've noticed there's also this drive to implement and start talking about how it would write specific portions of code in response to design/trade off questions. I have to prompt Sol/Astra almost every time with a note that I am not looking for implementation advice since I mostly use them as a rubber duck in the design phase

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#106
post #85

Gemini is underrated in that it produces the only prose that is somewhat bearable to read.

I was surprised when (finally) trying out Claude how much I preferred Gemini's way of communicating. I wont argue Claude is better at coding, but for knowledge work, I had to dig through Claude output to find what I actually wanted. At times, it even felt borderline incomprehensible.

Just today I had Sonnet 5 generate this (asking about always-on display in the iPhone e-versions):

> This mirrors how Apple has always segmented Pro vs. non-Pro iPhones: base models got LTPS panels while Pro models got LTPO, and only with the mainline iPhone 17/17 Plus did that gap close the standard versions previously lacked the smoother 120Hz ProMotion technology and the always-on display feature, unlike the Pro models — the 17e is the one model line still using the older, cheaper panel.

(emphasis mine)

I mean, I can guess what it is trying to say, but who RL'd this nonsense?

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly because it answers quickly and is more agreeable (too agreeable at times). Meanwhile Claude and Astra like to couch all their agreements with caveats and provisos.

> Meanwhile Claude and Astra like to couch all their agreements with caveats and provisos. Sometimes that's what being smart sounds like.

This is commonly why, on Reddit in particular, you can get eaten alive.

Someone confident but incorrect, can often sound more convincing than someone with actual expertise. The expert must add caveats/hedge, because those are the facts on the ground, whereas the person reciting google can be entirely confident.

Of course the people judging aren't experts, so they side with confidence and simplicity. Heck, just writing shorter replies on Reddit is rewarded. Nobody reads the articles, let alone a paragraph-long reply.

That all being said though, there are limits. Sometimes LLMs on high-thinking go off on full tangents based on little, and don't have the self-awareness to bring it back.

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#108

It is completely broken for me. After I ask a single question, it starts replying to itself in an infinite loop. It answers my question, then generates another reply to its own response, and keeps going. At some point, it even starts switching languages randomly.

Older versions also do that.

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#109
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was surprised when (finally) trying out Claude how much I preferred Gemini's way of communicating. I wont argue Claude is better at coding, but for knowledge work, I had to dig through Claude output to find what I actually wanted. At times, it even felt borderline incomprehensible.

Just today I had Sonnet 5 generate this (asking about always-on display in the iPhone e-versions): > This mirrors how Apple has always segmented Pro vs. non-Pro iPhones: base models got LTPS panels while Pro models got LTPO, and only with the mainline iPhone 17/17 Plus did that gap close the standard versions previously lacked the smoother 120Hz ProMotion technology and the always-on display feature , unlike the Pro…

Fable 5.1 even today inundates prose with "it's not this, it's that" type of garbage. I had to rewrite two paragraphs from a generic class announcement which I was planning to post on the LMS. Not sure where that productivity gain is that everyone is talking about.

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#110

Gemini is underrated in that it produces the only prose that is somewhat bearable to read.

It's also the only model that generates accurate translation and localization. No other frontier model comes close. Although Gemini's coding capabilities are subpar, its natural language processing is top-tier.

I’m curious how you guys keep track of each model’s coding capabilities. The landscape keeps changing. I don’t suppose you benchmark all frontier models every other month, right?
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