same experience here. Benchmarks don't capture the magic of having a 24/7 native-speaking conversational partner in a rare language. That alone makes these models worth it
Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking
251–260 of 335 posts
Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Aha, yes you're right! Thanks.
Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking
#253Maybe now it will call my wife when I ask it to...
Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking
#254I don’t understand good experiences people are having with Gemini. It’s the only model that sometimes loses/forgets context in literally next message. Plus feeding unasked product links to responses.
i have programmed a dozen scripts with google search AI lol
they'll live in my rc for decades
Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking
#255I don’t understand good experiences people are having with Gemini. It’s the only model that sometimes loses/forgets context in literally next message. Plus feeding unasked product links to responses.
I strongly agree. I suspect it's people who have not yet used the paid models from OpenAI and Anthropic. Gemini is comparable to free models from other providers, but not in the same universe as paid models. This is frustrating because when I discuss AI with laypeople they think it's still incapable of counting the number of Rs in "strawberry." They believe it to be essentially useless and incapable of basic tasks. W…
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Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking
#256Where is pro model, promised in io?
Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking
#257Even if really great, it still can’t use tools. The only consumer Google thing with access to MCP tools is Gemini Spark and that has lots of other problems. I wish they would combine their efforts on a great consumer product but it’s Google we’re talking about…
I still dream of the day that we get full tool parity in voice and text mode so your voice assistant can do everything you connect for you. Grok and Claude are btw almost there, only a very few minor built-in tools don’t exist in voice mode, but I already use both to connect to heaps of things! It’s so valuable to verbally discuss something with an agent, have the agent pull in context from GitHub, Notion, email, and then create artifacts somewhere
Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking
#258I don’t understand good experiences people are having with Gemini. It’s the only model that sometimes loses/forgets context in literally next message. Plus feeding unasked product links to responses.
I love it as a variation from the others. 3.8 flash is the best back-and-forth model for iterating imo, but would not use for long horizon
Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking
#259My 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…
My father-in-law was saying the same thing about Gemini 12 months ago regarding the Afrikaans speech. I've tried a few of them in my studies but none of them could seem to switch between English/Afrikaans except Gemini. It's an interesting time to be a language learner As jy wil, ons kan saam praat op Discord :) maar my Afrikaans is sleg
As a Dutch person i find Afrikaans always interesting whenever i happen to encounter it in the wild. As if a common ancestor took a very different evolutionary path.
Re: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
We (me and my teens) used Duolingo for a few years and.. didn't really get that far in actually being able to speak. It's kind of mind-blowing that they are the market leaders. In retrospect, I think of it more like an addictive language game and not really a good way to actually learn to speak. If you're really interested, shoot me an email.
Latest in a long line of scams for learning a language. Goes back to cassette tapes and records. The only good way is the natural way: immerse yourself in it.
Some cassette tapes work very well. Pimsleur for example.
You can use it as supplement or do it standalone on your commute before a trip and end up with good pronunciation, vocab and a conversational skills.