Google Duet AI is a new AI-powered assistant that is available for Google Workspace users (Duet AI also attracts an additional charge of $30 per user on top of the Workspace charge). It can help you with a variety of tasks, including generating text, summarizing content, and rewriting sentences.
Revealed at CES 2024, one of the most useful features of Duet AI is its ability to generate text. You can use it to create blog posts, emails, presentations, and now with spreadsheets aka Google Sheets. Simply type in a few keywords or phrases, and Duet AI will generate a complete piece of text, or data sheet for you. You can then edit the text as needed.
Duet AI can also be used to summarize content, and here is where it shines the best. If you have a long article or blog post, Duet AI can help you create a shorter, more concise version.
Google has extended Duet AI into Google Sheets, which is actually pretty cool. When presented with a prompt you can ask Google Duet AI to make you a list of something for example. First I asked it to make a list of camera repair shops in New York, sadly it didn't know how to do that for me. The second attempt I asked Google Duet AI to make me a list of quiet workspaces in New York (I should have asked the same for quiet workspaces at CES but I know the result would have been short), and just like that, a list of places was presented with amenities, price, and noise levels.
Then I asked it to make me a list of places to stay on Kodiak Island, Alaska, where I run photo workshops. Again it gave me a great list, although a few obvious places were omitted, on the second attempt it gave me a much better list.
For a bit of a test, I asked Duet to write a review about itself to see if it would make it nice and easy to read, but I found the result was a bit of a disappointment.
I can see why AI has a use when I see it used in this way, very good and while it's hard to fact-check spreadsheets results, it was limited to certain types of functions like lists etc. These are still present in the 'boring side' of the photographer's workflow, so for some there might be an appeal to the investment.
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