Why Google’s Gemini AI is ruining the spirit of travel discovery

Google’s new AI tool Gemini boasts that it can find me a cheap flight, secure a great hotel deal and make restaurant recommendations. But are they any good?

AI is not going to give you the best holiday.

As a Sagittarius, I am – for those who believe such things – highly compatible with the Gemini sign. According to zodiac zealots, we share a love of adventure, are keen to have new experiences and make a dynamic travelling duo. We both, however, also value our independence and freedom.

It’s hard to be independent, though, when your Gemini travel buddy just won’t leave you alone, and is constantly giving advice and tips. Because that’s what Gemini, Google’s overbearing AI tool, relentlessly does.

Gemini has a rather overblown opinion of its own abilities. It boasts that it can find me a cheap flight, secure a great hotel deal, make restaurant recommendations and provide me with a packing list for my next trip. It can generate itineraries and help with travel insurance. It even reckons it can help to make my holiday more eco-friendly.

Just because it is popular online, doesn’t mean it is any good.

Honestly, Gemini, can you just bugger off and let me work it out for myself, or perhaps consult a non-artificial human? Of course, every time we type something into Google search, Gemini leaps into action. It’s a handy tool, and I’m undoubtedly a long way away from harnessing all of its abilities and uses. But one of the great pleasures of travel is the spirit of discovery it engenders. I don’t want to be force-fed so much information before arriving at a destination that I have a spreadsheet’s worth of activities and places to tick off, and no time at all for happenstance.

Chatbots are here to help when it comes to booking travel online but do they?

What’s more, if Gemini helps me make every decision, will I end up having the same experience as everyone else who goes to, say, Manhattan or Marrakech? I’ve been travelling in Bali this week and according to Gemini I should be watching the sunset at La Plancha and dancing the night away at Potato Head Beach Club, along with everyone else who typed in “what to do in Seminyak”.

And let’s not forget the important disclaimer that appears at the bottom of each search: “AI responses may include mistakes.” Not so perfect after all, Gemini?

Instead, I hope to return from Bali and report that I’ve made some amazing local discoveries as yet unscripted by Gemini, if the stars align.

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