Goodbye Copilot, Hello Google AI

Over the last two weeks we discovered that Crowd Control Productions (CCP) management group bought itself from Pearl Abyss and rebranded as Fenris Creations. One of the companies backing the move financially was Google DeepMind which purchased a share of the Icelandic game studio. Which led me to a somewhat unrelated rabbit hole: should I switch to Google AI?

I've been open about using Microsoft's Copilot. One thing I didn't mention was I was paying $20/month for the privilege. That's right. The free version isn't that good. And when the subject turns to EVE Online, I got more garbage then when I used Copilot to help with writing the Python code I use to help generate data, charts and graphs for the blog. A couple of those rabbit holes were kind of frustrating.

Surprisingly, a big factor is the personality of the AI. I felt the AI would start pouting when I questioned the information provided and wanted a source. Can AI actually pout? If not, Microsoft certainly produced a good simulation of the behavior. As weird as it seems, Copilot's personality was a bit fragile and sometimes I had to be careful of my prompts if the AI was wrong two or three times in a row.

The part of Google AI I've used so far is Gemini. Considering I can pay for one year, reducing the cost down to $16.67/month, switching was a no-brainer. Also, Gemini seems to have a personality. The first thing I noticed was my page turned black. Apparently Gemini prefers night mode, although the Google DeepMind website is bright white.

Gemini seems more cheerful than Copilot and I can see why. Google AI has an application called LMNotebook in which I can provide the sources I want used and the AI won't go elsewhere looking for information. Copilot would do that, which means sometimes even summarizing a document would become an adventure. I get the feeling Gemini won't pout when I ask for the sources I need to write a blog post.

The biggest reason for the change, however, is the ecosystem of applications Google comes with. For example, Google runs Blogger, the platform that hosts The Nosy Gamer. I use Google Sheets to store most of my data, from historical financial data about game companies to PLEX sales information in EVE Online. I use Google Analytics to determine when I'm getting hit by bots from China or Singapore. I even have a subscription to YouTube to get rid of all those annoying ads. In short, I use a lot of Google products. Using one more seems like something I would naturally do. And if Google DeepMind using EVE Online for research purposes results in an AI that can reliably answer questions about EVE, so much the better.