Google is winning on every AI front • Hacker News Board

Re: Google is winning on every AI front

#691

Post by SparkyMcUnicorn » Sun, Apr 13, 2025, 1:38 AM UTC

pzo wrote: post #191

SparkyMcUnicorn wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on the task, and prompting feels different. I've found that sonnet is possibly better at starting things from scratch and frontend code, while Gemini has been able to one-shot difficult problems and fix bugs that sonnet has struggled with. Switching between them is a frequent occurrence for me. It might be relevant that I've completely stopped using Cursor in favor of other tools/agents.

> It might be relevant that I've completely stopped using Cursor in favor of other tools/agents. Can you share what you use these days? I switched from cursor to windsurf but also want to play more with Trae and Cline/RooCode

If I were to recommend one to someone today, I might pick RooCode. I'd suggest checking out boomerang mode and RooFlow on GitHub.

Here are some others that I've tried and could recommend, in no particular order:

- https://github.com/ai-christianson/RA.Aid

- https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code

- https://github.com/block/goose

- https://github.com/hotovo/aider-desk

I've also created a few "agents" to do specific tasks using Probe[0] as an MCP server, although I'm sure you could create a full-fledged agent with it if you wanted to.

[0] https://github.com/buger/probe

Re: Google is winning on every AI front

#692

Post by vitaflo » Sun, Apr 13, 2025, 1:41 AM UTC

mattlondon wrote: post #197

jononor wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is also in a great position wrt distribution - to get users at scale, and attach to pre-existing revenue streams. Via Android, Gmail, Docs, Search - they have a lot of reach. YouTube as well, though fit there is maybe less obvious. Combined with the two factors you mention, and the size of their warchest - they are really excellently positioned.

YouTube is very well positioned - all these video generating models etc. I am sure they'll be loads of AI editors too

Good, maybe Youtube will finally recommend something to me I actually want to watch.

Re: Google is winning on every AI front

#693

Post by googlehater » Sun, Apr 13, 2025, 1:56 AM UTC

sva_ wrote: post #610

It is sort of funny to me how the sentiment about whoever seems to be leading in ML changes so frequently (in particular here on HN.) A couple months ago it felt like people were sure that Google completely fucked it up for themselves (especially due to the fact that they invented the transformer but didn't productize it themselves at first.) For a short while, Claude was the best thing since sliced cheese, then Deep…

> A couple months ago it felt like people were sure that Google completely fucked it up for themselves

Hey it's me!

Re: Google is winning on every AI front

#694

Post by ylee » Sun, Apr 13, 2025, 2:00 AM UTC

moshegramovsky wrote: post #584

datavirtue wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife, the farthest you can get from the HN crowd, literally goes to tears when faced with Excel or producing a Word doc and she is a regular user of copilot and absolutely raves about it. Very unusual for her to take up new tech like this and put it to use but she uses it for everything now. Horse is out of the barn.

My Dad is elderly and he enjoys writing. Uses Google Gemini a few times a week. I always warn him that it can hallucinate and he seems to get it. It's changed his entire view of computing.

My father says "I feel like I hired an able assistant" regarding LLMs.

Re: Google is winning on every AI front

#695

Post by Vilian » Sun, Apr 13, 2025, 2:25 AM UTC

sva_ wrote: post #638

gcanyon wrote: post #317

Several people have suggested that LLMs might end up ad-supported. I'll point out that "ad supported" might be incredibly subtle/insidious when applied to LLMs: An LLM-based "adsense" could: 1. Maintain a list of sponsors looking to buy ads 2. Maintain a profile of users/ad targets 3. Monitor all inputs/outputs 4. Insert "recommendations" (ads) smoothly/imperceptibly in the course of normal conversation No one would…

Would be illegal in Germany ('Schleichwerbung') and perhaps the EU? I think it is actually covered in EU AI act article 5 (a): > [...] an AI system that deploys subliminal techniques beyond a person’s consciousness or purposefully manipulative or deceptive techniques, with the objective, or the effect of materially distorting the behaviour of a person or a group of persons by appreciably impairing their ability to ma…

The broad is proposital to be effective law

Re: Google is winning on every AI front

#696

Post by fldskfjdslkfj » Sun, Apr 13, 2025, 2:30 AM UTC

stefan_ wrote: post #464

Philpax wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say they're winning with Waymo: I took a fully autonomous taxi ride in the backseat in SF, and it just worked. No other company can currently do that, despite their promises and hype.

Winning going on what, 10 15 years now? Surely at some point they must start scaling? At this point all I can imagine is that every year they run the numbers and arrive at "yup, still makes no sense whatsoever". And so its eternally doomed to tech demo status.

They've been scaling quite rapidly lately. From the the look of it by end of next year it will be commercially available in a dozen+ major US cities.

Re: Google is winning on every AI front

#697

Post by fldskfjdslkfj » Sun, Apr 13, 2025, 2:35 AM UTC

DisjointedHunt wrote: post #373

Philpax wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As with everything related to Tesla FSD/Autopilot, I'll believe it when I see it. They have not earned the benefit of the doubt. Waymo works as a robotaxi today, Tesla doesn't. I'll grant you Chinese developments; I'm not across what's happening there, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was on par, yes. My bet is that they can reduce the cost of their working solution more reliably and safely than Tesla can get their…

So have you sat in a Tesla with the latest hardware or . . . I don't understand this attitude in the technology industry. If you want to hold such a strong opinion on something, at least take the initiative to research what you're talking about. Teslas __today__ are at or better than Waymo at autonomy. They are launching tests in June. There are popular accounts who have experienced this alpha at the "We, Robot" auto…

You really cannot understand why people are skeptical of FSD and Musk's promises?

Re: Google is winning on every AI front

#698

Post by tmarthal » Sun, Apr 13, 2025, 2:50 AM UTC

SkyMarshal wrote: post #581

flux293m wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I've noticed is that Gemini through gemini.google.com or through the mobile apps is vastly inferior to Gemini through aistudio.google.com. Much worse handling of long contexts amongst other things. Very odd that a product that is free (AI Studio use is free), is much worse than the product I am paying 20 quid a month for. I find this to be especially true for the newer models like "gemini-2.5-pro-preview-03…

Why does Google even have these two different interfaces?

Google seems to do a lot of "shipping the org chart" externally.

Re: Google is winning on every AI front

#699

Post by IG_Semmelweiss » Sun, Apr 13, 2025, 3:05 AM UTC

I tried to use the free Gemini google tier for the longest time until a few months ago. For a while, i was using it as a 2nd or 3rd backup response. After a lot of disappointment , I finally gave up. The responses vs Grok and OpenAI were nothing short of atrocious. Plus, a lot of content was effectively kneecapped behind censor walls.

Is it really true the 2.5 is actually good ?

Re: Google is winning on every AI front

#700

Post by FilosofumRex » Sun, Apr 13, 2025, 3:18 AM UTC

Industrial/commercial adoption of LLMs is quite varied and critically depends on the quality vs criticality match.

In healthcare, engineering, construction, manufacturing, or aviation industires adoption is mostly on the admin side for low priority/busy work - virtually no doctors, pharmacists, nurses, engineers, technicians or even sales people use LLMs on the job. LLMs products have serious quality issues and are decades behind industrial databases, simulation and diagnostic tools.

On the other hand in academics, consulting, publishing, journalism, marketing, advertising, law and insurance industries it's wildly adopted and is surging. For example, Westlaw's Co-counsel is better at drafting and case law briefing than all but the most experienced litigators. Not only it has not replaced lawyers, but is causing a boom in hiring since the time and cost of training new associates is drastically reduced and allows firms to take on more clients with more sophisticated case work.