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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

#151

Post by asdfman123 »

jeanbza wrote: post #115

My first language is Afrikaans, which is a somewhat niche language and hard to find teachers/conversation buddies outside South Africa. (I live in USA now) I've been using Gemini to live chat in Afrikaans and do impromptu Afrikaans grammar lessons during my solo drives around town. It is phenomenal at speaking the language - like, it really shocks my family members when they hear it. This is probably the most joy I g…

I love Gemini in Google Maps for long drives. I start getting bored of music and podcasts and start grilling it with random questions I've always wondered about.

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#153

Post by bahmboo »

BeetleB wrote: post #99
schainks wrote: post #67

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.

As sister comments have pointed out, I find that it's very much dependent on the phone you're using. If it can't even show me a waveform then I don't think it's going to be able to tease out any sort of speech

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#154

Post by HDBaseT »

jeanbza wrote: post #115

My first language is Afrikaans, which is a somewhat niche language and hard to find teachers/conversation buddies outside South Africa. (I live in USA now) I've been using Gemini to live chat in Afrikaans and do impromptu Afrikaans grammar lessons during my solo drives around town. It is phenomenal at speaking the language - like, it really shocks my family members when they hear it. This is probably the most joy I g…

[flagged]

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#155

Post by asdfman123 »

Zsfe510asG wrote: post #4

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

I work for Google and we have the choice between Gemini models and Opus. Opus is slightly better than Gemini flash but I find the style unbearable.

It reminds me of a pedantic grad student.

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#156

Post by bahmboo »

WarmWash wrote: post #16
rdtsc wrote: post #9

I wonder when/if we’ll see Gemini beating Fable and Astra. Last year I would have confidently bet Google will overtake the others just because they have the data, the hardware (TPUs) and a fat advertising money pipe and yet they are still behind. Anyone anonymous at Google want to hint when Gemini 4 will be out?

As an "everyday mans AI" I'd say 3.8 Flash definitely already has. Smart enough for the vast swath of people, and only slightly eeked out by Astra(Max) on vision capabilities, like the kind of "Point your camera at something and ask questions" that non-tech people like to do. It's crazy fast and very compute light, so not getting bogged down constantly. I can't think of a better general purpose model than 3.8 flash r…

I find it really good and up-to-date, like within an hour of current events or website updates that it can reference. Astra is a step up for complex stuff, but I'm not going to use up all my tokens to ask it the specs of a 2023 MacBook pro then wait 3 minutes only to get a tome with a complete breakdown of the Mac OS platform and including such things as the supply side dynamics driving the ram size choices and pricing at that time.

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#157

Post by mapontosevenths »

nostrebored wrote: post #114
Someone1234 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 writin…

In my experience actual experts don’t hedge because they have a perspective. They might say “I think”, but avoid weaseling.

My experience has been very much the opposite of yours.

To an expert communicating with a layperson is a form of compression. You must turn some very complex idea into one that you suppose the other person can grasp given their limited frame of reference. It's always lossy, and you have to guess how much you can remove without sounding patronizing or being inaccurate. It's tough, and the more you know the tougher it gets.

Ever done that "explain what happens when I visit Google in my web browser" interview question?

A sales guy will answer in a sentence. An engineer might be able to talk about it for several days and still not be sure they didn't miss anything important. That much knowledge can actually be detrimental to communication.

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#158

Post by comex »

amelius wrote: post #145
WarmWash wrote: post #11

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.

How do you know you're using Astra? My ChatGPT env only says "low", "medium", "high". Is this a "pro" thing? I have totally no idea what I'm talking to, so actually I'm thinking of stopping my plan. Gemini and Claude are much more clear about it. Anyway, I like the speed at which Gemini responds so indeed for simple things it is preferable.

For me (Plus plan, iOS app), Astra only shows up under the Work tab.

I’ve been using Work for all my queries, since it seems to just be the same interface as Chat but with more features. I don’t understand why they’re two separate things.

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#159

Post by BeetleB »

bahmboo wrote: post #153
BeetleB wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As sister comments have pointed out, I find that it's very much dependent on the phone you're using. If it can't even show me a waveform then I don't think it's going to be able to tease out any sort of speech

I was using Google's Translate app.

Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

#160

Post by asdfman123 »

rdtsc wrote: post #97
WarmWash wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an "everyday mans AI" I'd say 3.8 Flash definitely already has. Smart enough for the vast swath of people, and only slightly eeked out by Astra(Max) on vision capabilities, like the kind of "Point your camera at something and ask questions" that non-tech people like to do. It's crazy fast and very compute light, so not getting bogged down constantly. I can't think of a better general purpose model than 3.8 flash r…

I was thinking about coding specifically. Also, see all these math and physics breakthroughs, it's usually not Gemini but Fable and Astra.

I think 3.7 Flash is very good at coding. I have access to both that and Opus 5. Opus is only slightly better IMO and it's much more frustrating to read.
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