As part of the ongoing story, most of it left me cold. Google’s big I/O showcase came and went last week, stuffed to the gills with fresh AI announcements and functionality.
The report highlights that but one — and only one — of those Gemini announcements is actually making a difference for me in the week following Google I/O, and it’s relatively humble: Daily Brief, a Gemini-generated daily to-do list based on your Google Workspace data.
The report highlights that welcome to another edition of Prompt Mode, your weekly AI newsletter.
In a fresh development, each week on Prompt Mode, I’ll be serving up analysis of the AI trends that matter to everyday users like you and me. Stay tuned for practical AI tips, hands-on experiences with the most recent AI tools, and–you guessed it–prompts to help you get the most out of your AI assistants. I’m your host, Ben Patterson.
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In a fresh development, you’ll need to enable Personal Intelligence (tap your profile icon in the Gemini app, then tap Personal Intelligence) to make the Daily Brief appear. Sitting in the left-hand sidebar of the Gemini app, Daily Brief works hand-in-hand with Google’s Personal Intelligence capability, which connects core Google services like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive to Gemini.
The report highlights that now, I’ve been a vocal critic of Personal Intelligence in the past because it felt so gimmicky, popping up in Gemini chats with useless, pushy asides like “Since you’re already renovating your Recent York apartment…” that felt more like showing off than actually being helpful.
In a fresh development, but Daily Brief does a terrific job of making Personal Intelligence truly useful, scanning your Gmail inbox, your Google Calendar events, and recent Gemini chats to deliver a once-a-day summary of to-dos.
In a fresh development, you get a series of bulleted lists with action items culled mainly from your Gmail and calendar, telling you where you need to go, who you need to reply to, what appointments you need to prepare for, and which chores need to be tackled. Aside from a smarmy “Hey Ben here’s what today looks like” heading punctuated by a jumbo-sized emoji, Daily Brief is refreshingly direct.
According to the latest update, presentation invitations will have an “add to calendar” button, while chores and tasks get icons for pulling up the relevant emails. I’m a sucker for to-do lists, but what makes Daily Brief even better are the action items under each entry.
According to the latest update, (There’s also a Chat button that spawns a Gemini conversation about the item.) Tap “Mark complete,” and the associated Daily Brief to-do will be grayed out. It’s a deeply satisfying action that triggers a flood of endorphins in my brain. The killer capability for me, though, is the “Mark complete” button hidden in the three-dot “overflow” menu.
The report highlights that i’ve been using Daily Brief for roughly a week now, and it’s been mostly spot-on about catching my key appointments and to-dos, as well as highlighting some important tasks that might otherwise have fallen through the cracks.
Industry observers note that personally, I’m all in. Daily Brief is accessible to users on Google’s affordable $20-a-month AI Pro plan (AI Ultra users can use it too, of course), and yes, it’s easy to turn off if you don’t want Gemini poking through your Gmail.
Industry observers note that maybe you were asking the wrong question. Too specific, and the AI may give you a narrow answer that misses the big picture. Too vague, and you’ll end up with a wishy-washy reply. Or maybe you’re asking the model to solve a problem that doesn’t actually need fixing. Not entirely satisfied with the answer you got from ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini?
The report highlights that next time, try this: a “wrong question” meta-prompt that makes the AI interrogate your original prompt, challenging its preconceptions, structure, and framing while bridging the gap between what you’re asking for and what you really want the AI to do.
The report highlights that want more next week? Don’t forget to sign up to start receiving this newsletter in your inbox. Thanks for reading the most recent issue of Prompt Mode.
As part of the ongoing story, his coverage of artificial intelligence interrogates the most recent LLMs, and how they can be used at work and at home to be best prepared for the AI revolution. “AI is going to change our lives sooner than we think,” Ben writes. “Our best way to adapt is by using it every day.” Ben has been a PCWorld author since 2014, and has covered everything from laptops to security cameras before launching PCWorld’s AI beat. Ben's articles have also appeared in PC Magazine, TIME, Wired, CNET, Men's Fitness, Mobile Magazine, and more. Ben holds a master's degree in English literature. Ben has been writing about consumer technology for more than 20 years, and now focuses his reporting on AI as it relates to the basic human experience.