Gemini 2.0 is now available to everyone

I tried voice chat. It's very good, except for the politics

We started talking about my plans for the day, and I said I was making chili. G asked if I have a recipe or if I needed one. I said, I started with Obama's recipe many years ago and have worked on it from there.

G gave me a form response that it can't talk politics.

Oh, I'm not talking politics, I'm talking chili.

G then repeated form response and tried to change conversation, and as long as I didn't use the O word, we were allowed to proceed. Phew

I find it horrifying and dystopian that the part where it "Can't talk politics" is just accepted and your complaint is that it interrupts your ability to talk chilli.

"Go back to bed America." "You are free, to do as we tell you"

https://youtu.be/TNPeYflsMdg?t=143

There's nothing wrong with (and in fact much to be said in favor of) a "no politics" rule. When I was growing up it was common advice to not discuss politics/religion in mixed company. At one point I thought that was stupid fuddy-duddy advice, because people are adults and can act reasonably even if they disagree. But as I get older, I realize that I was wrong: people really, really can't control their emotions when politics comes up and it gets ugly. Turns out that the older generation was correct, and you really shouldn't talk politics in mixed company.

Obviously in this specific case the user isn't trying to talk politics, but the rule isn't dystopian in and of itself. It's simply a reflection of human nature, and that someone at Google knows it's going to be a lot of trouble for no gain if the bot starts to get into politics with users.

As an outsider's perspective: This aspect of American culture seems self-reinforcing.

It's not like things can't get heated when people in much of the rest of the world discuss politics.

But if the subject isn't entirely verboten, adults will have some practice in agreeing to disagree, and moving on.

With AI this particular cultural export has gone from a quaint oddity, to something that, as a practical matter, can be really annoying sometimes.