Gemini / Android Auto using AI to modify speech-to-text?

[u/Peeeeeps]

Earlier today while driving my girlfriend texted me asking what I wanted from a coffee shop and instead of transcribing my speech exactly it decided to summarize it instead. It took 3 tries before it texted closer to what I wanted, but I just gave up at that point.

Me: text girlfriend anything cold, surprise me. well at least have it be coffee. I don't want a large glass of milk or something like that, haha

AA: Sure, message to girlfriend saying: "Get me something cold and caffeinated, like iced coffee." Ready to send it?

Me: Change it

It didn't even prompt me for what I wanted to change it to.

AA: Sure, message to girlfriend saying: "Get me any cold coffee, surprise me." Ready to send it?

Me: Change it

AA: What would you like the message to say?

Me: anything cold, surprise me. well at least have it be coffee. I don't want a large glass of milk or something like that, haha

Sure, message to girlfriend saying: "Get me anything cold, surprise me. Just make sure it's coffee and not like a large glass of milk." Ready to send it?

Is this some new functionality? I couldn't find any setting to disable it. But it was really annoying and unsafe as I had to pay more attention to AA than I usually need to. Sure it's not THAT big of a deal, but if I wanted to text what it summarized I would have said that in the first place.

[u/TheAgedProfessor]

But you misunderstand... Gemini is so much smarter than you are, it needs to text what it thinks you want instead of what you think you want. /s

I agree, this is ridiculous.

[u/jesssoul]

"change it"? You say "no, text this exactly no edits:" But still, fk using AI to communicate. Nobody asked it to translate or summarize and it pisses me off. Wastes so much time and energy. I always feel like it's modeled after a gaslighting asshole. The words I say are the words I mean lol

[u/Peeeeeps → u/jesssoul]

"Change it" is one of the two default options when using speech-to-text. So I was just hitting that option with the infotainment knob in my car. Before today it's never been an issue. It always just texts what I say and was working immediately before this specific problem.

[u/EngineerBoy00]

Mine did that to me twice and I reactivated the assistant and I told it so not ever change the wording of my dictated texts, ever.

It acknowledged that and hasn't done it since.

Then I tried to text someone to view a particular video at a certain timestamp and Gemini responded it can't play videos in the car. I finally realized that when taking my text dictation it was assessing that dictation for potential commands and trying up act on them.

So I reactivated Gemini and told it when I am dictating a text do not interpret the text for command, just take down the text as spoken.

That has also seemed to be working thus far.

Frustrating.

[u/biz_reporter → u/EngineerBoy00]

Oh it will forget. I told it to memorize who my daughter is a few weeks ago. Then yesterday when I asked it to text my daughter, it tried to text a random person in my phone book. I asked it who my daughter is, and it told me it didn't know who it is -- even though the contacts app has her labeled and the old assistant could read that metadata. Anyway, I asked Gemini to remember my daughter's name again. If I had to guess, I'll have to do it monthly 🤦‍♂️

[u/EngineerBoy00 → u/biz_reporter]

Yeah, I taught it who my daughter was and the following week it tried to text "your doctor". I thought it was a mis-hear so I repeated it several times with overly precise enunciation and kept getting "doctor".

So, I'm certainly waiting for it to forget more and more, then for Google to launch the Persistent Memory Feature at a higher subscription rate.

[u/biz_reporter → u/EngineerBoy00]

Persistent memory probably already is a Gemini pro feature. And it's likely why replacing simpler, more effective Assistant with Gemini is a giant cash grab.

[u/Nooblakahn → u/biz_reporter]

Hey if it makes you feel any better, first time I had this thing play an album on Apple music, it did it. Now it's hit or miss. More more miss than hit. It will actually tell you it can't control apple music other than basic controls like pause, resume or next track

It can though, it just doesn't want too, but forgets it doesn't sometimes I guess 🤷‍♂️

[u/localpauper]

Local STT is so goddamn fast and good now. I just wish we could fork AA to force third party assistants. I made one recently, works completely offline (which is nice, considering Gemini will totally fuck up if you have spotty Internet), but there's just no good way to get it in on stock AA/OS

[u/JaylanPHNX]

I wish they would just implement the new Rambler feature from Gboard on the Pixel 11. It's so good, and AA is the perfect use case for it.

[u/Triple-Tooketh]

Yeah its trash now. Its Agentic therefore we have to swallow it.

[u/Agreeable-Cry-8327]

They going to Android Auto Settings on your phone > scroll to Digital Assistant section > select Manage your Digital Assistant > then to Digital Assistant From Google > then change back to Google Assistant.

[u/MadMosh666 → u/Agreeable-Cry-8327]

As of this week (I believe) this isn't, or won't be, possible. They're forcing the move to Gemini and scrapping Assistant.

And, yes, this pisses me of as Gemini as most definitely not fit for purpose.

[u/nourtheweenie → u/Agreeable-Cry-8327]

Mine is still the google assistant, but much slower. I end up tapping my screen vs voice responding

[u/Denny-Crane_ → u/Agreeable-Cry-8327]

Google Assistant became so useless in Android Auto that I had to switch to Gemeni. I couldn't even message my wife anymore, that's how bad it got. Gemeni has improved, for what it's worth. I haven't experienced what the OP is.

[u/Peeeeeps → u/Denny-Crane_]

This is the first time I've ever had the problem. It was working fine before this specific occurrence.

[u/flargenhargen]

ooh we should get these filters for our politicians so when they say something racist or insanely stupid, it gets automatically changed to something normal humans would say.

[u/torch9t9]

Yes I've had that retarded thing paraphrase a few times, or repeat back in a foreign language.

[u/fun_alias1]

Could you just call her back?

[u/pssiraj → u/fun_alias1]

You can just do a lot of things. The point is Gemini on AA is making it harder to do the things we were already able to do.