Google’s Free Gemini Code Assist Arrives with Sky-High Usage Limits
Gemini Code Assist is a new AI coding tool that lets developers do 90 times more than competing tools like GitHub Copilot. The tool was first released as an enterprise product late last year and has been updated to offer its features to individual developers for free, with generous usage limits. Google's Gemini Code Assist integrates seamlessly with existing development environments, providing suggestions and addressing specific challenges in code completion.
This move highlights the ongoing trend of tech giants leveraging generative AI to drive adoption and increase user engagement in their platforms.
What are the implications of a freemium model for coding tools on the business models of software companies like Microsoft and GitHub?
Gemini Code Assist, Google's AI coding tool, provides developers with real-time code suggestions, debugging assistance, and the ability to generate entire code blocks through natural language prompts. Launched widely in February 2025, it incorporates a free tier that allows up to 180,000 code completions monthly, positioning it as a strong competitor to established tools like GitHub Copilot. With seamless integrations into popular development environments, Gemini Code Assist aims to enhance productivity for developers at all experience levels.
The introduction of Gemini Code Assist highlights the increasing reliance on AI in software development, potentially transforming traditional coding practices and workflows.
Will the proliferation of AI coding assistants ultimately lead to a devaluation of human coding skills in the tech industry?
Google has updated its AI assistant Gemini with two significant features that enhance its capabilities and bring it closer to rival ChatGPT. The "Screenshare" feature allows Gemini to do live screen analysis and answer questions in the context of what it sees, while the new "Gemini Live" feature enables real-time video analysis through the phone's camera. These updates demonstrate Google's commitment to innovation and its quest to remain competitive in the AI assistant market.
The integration of these features into Gemini highlights the growing trend of multimodal AI assistants that can process various inputs and provide more human-like interactions, raising questions about the future of voice-based interfaces.
Will the release of these features on the Google One AI Premium plan lead to a significant increase in user adoption and engagement with Gemini?
Google is upgrading its AI capabilities for all users through its Gemini chatbot, including the ability to remember user preferences and interests. The feature, previously exclusive to paid users, allows Gemini to see the world around it, making it more conversational and context-aware. This upgrade aims to make Gemini a more engaging and personalized experience for all users.
As AI-powered chatbots become increasingly ubiquitous in our daily lives, how can we ensure that they are designed with transparency, accountability, and human values at their core?
Will the increasing capabilities of AI like Gemini's be enough to alleviate concerns about job displacement and economic disruption caused by automation?
Google has introduced a memory feature to the free version of its AI chatbot, Gemini, allowing users to store personal information for more engaging and personalized interactions. This update, which follows the feature's earlier release for Gemini Advanced subscribers, enhances the chatbot's usability, making conversations feel more natural and fluid. While Google is behind competitors like ChatGPT in rolling out this feature, the swift availability for all users could significantly elevate the user experience.
This development reflects a growing recognition of the importance of personalized AI interactions, which may redefine user expectations and engagement with digital assistants.
How will the introduction of memory features in AI chatbots influence user trust and reliance on technology for everyday tasks?
Google is giving Sheets a Gemini-powered upgrade that is designed to help users analyze data faster and turn spreadsheets into charts using AI. With this update, users can access Gemini’s capabilities to generate insights from their data, such as correlations, trends, outliers, and more. Users now can also generate advanced visualizations, like heatmaps, that they can insert as static images over cells in spreadsheets.
This upgrade highlights the growing importance of artificial intelligence in democratizing data analysis, enabling non-experts to uncover valuable insights from their own data.
Will this technology be accessible to individual consumers, or will it remain a feature primarily available to business users with more advanced spreadsheet needs?
Google is expanding its AI assistant, Gemini, with new features that allow users to ask questions using video content in real-time. At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 in Barcelona, Google showcased a "Screenshare" feature that enables users to share what's on their phone's screen with Gemini and get answers about it as they watch. This development marks another step in the evolution of AI-powered conversational interfaces.
As AI assistants like Gemini become more prevalent, it raises fundamental questions about the role of human curation and oversight in the content shared with these systems.
How will users navigate the complexities of interacting with an AI assistant that is simultaneously asking for clarification and attempting to provide assistance?
Google is giving its Sheets software a Gemini-powered upgrade that is designed to help users analyze data faster and turn spreadsheets into charts using AI. With this update, users can access Gemini's capabilities to generate insights from their data, such as correlations, trends, outliers, and more. Users now can also generate advanced visualizations, like heatmaps, that they can insert as static images over cells in spreadsheets.
The integration of AI-powered tools in Sheets has the potential to revolutionize the way businesses analyze and present data, potentially reducing manual errors and increasing productivity.
How will this upgrade impact small business owners and solo entrepreneurs who rely on Google Sheets for their operations, particularly those without extensive technical expertise?
Gemini AI is making its way to Android Auto, although the feature is not yet widely accessible, as Google continues to integrate the AI across its platforms. Early testing revealed that while Gemini can handle routine tasks and casual conversation, its navigation and location-based responses are lacking, indicating that further refinement is necessary before the official rollout. As the development progresses, it remains to be seen how Gemini will enhance the driving experience compared to its predecessor, Google Assistant.
The initial shortcomings in Gemini’s functionality highlight the challenges tech companies face in creating reliable AI solutions that seamlessly integrate into everyday applications, especially in high-stakes environments like driving.
What specific features do users hope to see improved in Gemini to make it a truly indispensable tool for drivers?
Gemini can now add events to your calendar, give you event details, and help you find an event you've forgotten about. The feature allows users to ask voice commands or type in prompts to interact with Gemini, which then provides relevant information. By leveraging AI-powered search, Gemini helps users quickly access their schedule without manual searching.
This integration marks a significant step forward for Google's AI-powered assistant, as it begins to blur the lines between virtual assistants and productivity tools.
How will this new capability impact the way people manage their time and prioritize appointments in the coming years?
Users looking to revert from Google's Gemini AI chatbot back to the traditional Google Assistant can do so easily through the app's settings. While Gemini offers a more conversational experience, some users prefer the straightforward utility of Google Assistant for quick queries and tasks. This transition highlights the ongoing evolution in AI assistant technologies and the varying preferences among users for simplicity versus advanced interaction.
The choice between Gemini and Google Assistant reflects broader consumer desires for personalized technology experiences, raising questions about how companies will continue to balance innovation with user familiarity.
As AI assistants evolve, how will companies ensure that advancements meet the diverse needs and preferences of their users without alienating those who prefer more traditional functionalities?
Google has added a new, experimental 'embedding' model for text, Gemini Embedding, to its Gemini developer API. Embedding models translate text inputs like words and phrases into numerical representations, known as embeddings, that capture the semantic meaning of the text. This innovation could lead to improved performance across diverse domains, including finance, science, legal, search, and more.
The integration of Gemini Embedding with existing AI applications could revolutionize natural language processing by enabling more accurate document retrieval and classification.
What implications will this new model have for the development of more sophisticated chatbots, conversational interfaces, and potentially even autonomous content generation tools?
Gemini, Google’s AI-powered chatbot, has introduced new lock screen widgets and shortcuts for Apple devices, making it easier to access the assistant even when your phone is locked. The six new lock screen widgets provide instant access to different Gemini functions, such as voice input, image recognition, and file analysis. This update aims to make Gemini feel more integrated into daily life on iPhone.
The proliferation of AI-powered assistants like Google Gemini underscores a broader trend towards making technology increasingly ubiquitous in our personal lives.
How will the ongoing development of AI assistants impact our expectations for seamless interactions with digital devices, potentially redefining what we consider "intelligent" technology?
Google has added a suite of lockscreen widgets to its Gemini app for iOS and iPadOS, allowing users to quickly access various features and functions from the AI assistant's latest update. The widgets, which include text prompts, Gemini Live, and other features, are designed to make it easier and faster to interact with the AI assistant on iPhone. By adding these widgets, Google aims to lure iPhone and iPad users away from Siri or get people using Gemini instead of OpenAI's ChatGPT.
This strategic move by Google highlights the importance of user experience and accessibility in the AI-powered virtual assistant space, where seamless interactions can make all the difference in adoption rates.
As Apple continues to develop a new, smarter Siri, how will its approach to integrating voice assistants with AI-driven features impact the competitive landscape of the industry?
Gemini Live, Google's conversational AI, is set to gain a significant upgrade with the arrival of live video capabilities in just a few weeks. The feature will enable users to show the robot something instead of telling it, marking a major milestone in the development of multimodal AI. With this update, Gemini Live will be able to process and understand live video and screen sharing, allowing for more natural and interactive conversations.
This development highlights the growing importance of visual intelligence in AI systems, as they become increasingly capable of processing and understanding human visual cues.
How will the integration of live video capabilities with other Google AI features, such as search and content recommendation, impact the overall user experience and potential applications?
Gemini, Google's AI chatbot, has surprisingly demonstrated its ability to create engaging text-based adventures reminiscent of classic games like Zork, with rich descriptions and options that allow players to navigate an immersive storyline. The experience is similar to playing a game with one's best friend, as Gemini adapts its responses to the player's tone and style. Through our conversation, we explored the woods, retrieved magical items, and solved puzzles in a game that was both entertaining and thought-provoking.
This unexpected ability of Gemini to create interactive stories highlights the vast potential of AI-powered conversational platforms, which could potentially become an integral part of gaming experiences.
What other creative possibilities will future advancements in AI and natural language processing unlock for developers and players alike?
Google Gemini stands out as the most data-hungry service, collecting 22 of these data types, including highly sensitive data like precise location, user content, the device's contacts list, browsing history, and more. The analysis also found that 30% of the analyzed chatbots share user data with third parties, potentially leading to targeted advertising or spam calls. DeepSeek, while not the worst offender, collects only 11 unique types of data, including user input like chat history, raising concerns under GDPR rules.
This raises a critical question: as AI chatbot apps become increasingly omnipresent in our daily lives, how will we strike a balance between convenience and personal data protection?
What regulations or industry standards need to be put in place to ensure that the growing number of AI-powered chatbots prioritize user privacy above corporate interests?
Google has upgraded its Colab service with a new 'agent' integration designed to help users analyze different types of data. The 'Data Science Agent' tool, part of Google's Gemini 2.0 AI model family, allows users to quickly clean data, visualize trends, and get insights on their uploaded data sets. This upgrade is aimed at data scientists and AI use cases, providing a more streamlined experience for analyzing and processing large datasets.
The integration of Data Science Agent into Colab highlights the growing importance of AI-driven tools in the field of data science, potentially democratizing access to advanced analytics capabilities.
As AI models like Gemini 2.0 become increasingly sophisticated, how will this impact the need for specialized data cleaning and analysis techniques, and what implications might this have for data scientist job requirements?
Adjusting settings in the Gemini app can significantly enhance user privacy by limiting data access and usage. Key recommendations include disabling extensions that allow access to Google Drive and smart devices, turning off AI training features, and avoiding discussions of sensitive topics in public. These practical steps empower users to take control of their personal information while utilizing Gemini's capabilities on their Android devices.
These tweaks reflect a growing awareness among users regarding data privacy, highlighting the need for transparency in AI interactions and data handling practices.
What further measures can users adopt to safeguard their privacy as AI technologies become increasingly integrated into daily life?
Google has announced an expansion of its AI search features, powered by Gemini 2.0, which marks a significant shift towards more autonomous and personalized search results. The company is testing an opt-in feature called AI Mode, where the results are completely taken over by the Gemini model, skipping traditional web links. This move could fundamentally change how Google presents search results in the future.
As Google increasingly relies on AI to provide answers, it raises important questions about the role of human judgment and oversight in ensuring the accuracy and reliability of search results.
How will this new paradigm impact users' trust in search engines, particularly when traditional sources are no longer visible alongside AI-generated content?
Google Gemini users can now access the AI chatbot directly from the iPhone's lock screen, thanks to an update released on Monday first spotted by 9to5Google. This feature allows users to seamlessly interact with Google's relatively real-time voice assistant, Gemini Live, without having to unlock their phone. The addition of new widgets and features within the Gemini app further blurs the lines between AI-powered assistants and traditional smartphones.
As competitors like OpenAI step in to supply iPhone users with AI assistants of their own, it raises interesting questions about the future of AI on mobile devices: Will we see a fragmentation of AI ecosystems, or will one platform emerge as the standard for voice interactions?
How might this trend impact the development of more sophisticated and integrated AI capabilities within smartphones, potentially paving the way for entirely new user experiences?
ChatGPT, OpenAI's AI-powered chatbot platform, can now directly edit code — if you're on macOS, that is. The newest version of the ChatGPT app for macOS can take action to edit code in supported developer tools, including Xcode, VS Code, and JetBrains. Users can optionally turn on an “auto-apply” mode so ChatGPT can make edits without the need for additional clicks.
As AI-powered coding assistants like ChatGPT become increasingly sophisticated, it raises questions about the future of human roles in software development and whether these tools will augment or replace traditional developers.
How will the widespread adoption of AI coding assistants impact the industry's approach to bug fixing, security, and intellectual property rights in the context of open-source codebases?
Google has informed Australian authorities it received more than 250 complaints globally over nearly a year that its artificial intelligence software was used to make deepfake terrorism material, highlighting the growing concern about AI-generated harm. The tech giant also reported dozens of user reports warning about its AI program Gemini being used to create child abuse material. The disclosures underscore the need for better guardrails around AI technology to prevent such misuse.
As the use of AI-generated content becomes increasingly prevalent, it is crucial for companies and regulators to develop effective safeguards that can detect and mitigate such harm before it spreads.
How will governments balance the need for innovation with the requirement to ensure that powerful technologies like AI are not used to facilitate hate speech or extremist ideologies?
Google is reportedly set to introduce a new AI assistant called Pixel Sense with the Pixel 10, abandoning its previous assistant, Gemini, amidst ongoing challenges in creating a reliable assistant experience. Pixel Sense aims to provide a more personalized interaction by utilizing data across various applications on the device while ensuring user privacy through on-device processing. This shift represents a significant evolution in Google's approach to AI, potentially enhancing the functionality of Pixel phones and distinguishing them in a crowded market.
The development of Pixel Sense highlights the increasing importance of user privacy and personalized technology, suggesting a potential shift in consumer expectations for digital assistants.
Will Google's focus on on-device processing and privacy give Pixel Sense a competitive edge over other AI assistants in the long run?
Google's AI-powered Gemini appears to struggle with certain politically sensitive topics, often saying it "can't help with responses on elections and political figures right now." This conservative approach sets Google apart from its rivals, who have tweaked their chatbots to discuss sensitive subjects in recent months. Despite announcing temporary restrictions for election-related queries, Google hasn't updated its policies, leaving Gemini sometimes struggling or refusing to deliver factual information.
The tech industry's cautious response to handling sensitive topics like politics and elections raises questions about the role of censorship in AI development and the potential consequences of inadvertently perpetuating biases.
Will Google's approach to handling politically charged topics be a model for other companies, and what implications will this have for public discourse and the dissemination of information?
GPT-4.5 and Google's Gemini Flash 2.0, two of the latest entrants to the conversational AI market, have been put through their paces to see how they compare. While both models offer some similarities in terms of performance, GPT-4.5 emerged as the stronger performer with its ability to provide more detailed and nuanced responses. Gemini Flash 2.0, on the other hand, excelled in its translation capabilities, providing accurate translations across multiple languages.
The fact that a single test question – such as the weather forecast – could result in significantly different responses from two AI models raises questions about the consistency and reliability of conversational AI.
As AI chatbots become increasingly ubiquitous, it's essential to consider not just their individual strengths but also how they will interact with each other and be used in combination to provide more comprehensive support.