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Title: Gemini AI To Transform Google Maps Into a More Conversational
Experience

Link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/05/2254...

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Google Maps is
heading in a new direction with artificial intelligence sitting in the
passenger's seat. Fueled by Google's Gemini AI technology, the world's most
popular navigation app will become a more conversational companion as part of
a redesign announced Wednesday. The hands-free experience is meant to turn
Google Maps into something more like an insightful passenger able to direct a
driver to a destination while also providing nearby recommendations on places
to eat, shop or sightsee, when asked for the advice. "No fumbling required --
now you can just ask," Google promised in a blog post about the app makeover.
The AI features are also supposed to enable Google Maps to be more precise by
calling out landmarks to denote the place to make a turn instead of relying
on distance notifications. AI chatbots, like Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT,
have sometimes lapsed into periods of making things up -- known as
"hallucinations" in tech speak -- but Google is promising that built-in
safeguards will prevent Maps from accidentally sending drivers down the wrong
road. All the information that Gemini is drawing upon will be culled from the
roughly 250 million places stored in Google Maps' database of reviews
accumulated during the past 20 years. Google Maps' new AI capabilities will
be rolling out to both Apple's iPhone and Android mobile devices.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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