I saw an invite to my Google Account to pilot Google’s integration of AI into its various apps called, I think, Duet AI. They are rolling out a bit of it at a time, and after some hemming and hawing, I decided to give it a go (I might still opt out at some point but given all the inquiry and experimenting I have been doing already, it seemed like another step). Google has an explanatory page about Duet here.
I experimented with Duet in Google Docs after deciding to do some poem collaboration with the AI (which I assume is powered by Bard). I began with a haiku about hummingbirds, and then asked the Duet AI to write one, too. It did, and there are some options for tweaking the text, if wanted. You can Recreate (I didn’t find this worked all that well but maybe that is because the haiku poems were short) or Refine (with a few different parameters).
Then, I kept going, back and forth (another game of AI Chat Tennis), and I even tried to get it to turn the Document of poems into a Presentation (which I saw happen in a demo but it told me that feature had not yet rolled out). The BOLD poems are mine and the ITALICS poems are via Duet.
I even asked it to generate a list of possible titles for our collection. I had to recreate this a few times. Most were drab. One ended up OK.
I later added the collection of poems to Giphy and added my own animated birds in motion, because … well, hummingbirds, right?
My initial reaction — I could see Duet being helpful as a thinking partner. The tool didn’t feel too intrusive (it sits off to the side with a little icon) and when I opened it up, it gave me some possible ideas for use with my writing. I haven’t looked at my email platform yet nor the presentation platform, but I will.
I do wonder about how and when and if Duet will be integrated into Google’s school platforms, and what that might look like. (I think Google has said they are NOT pushing Duet and AI into school Google networks … yet)
Anyone else given Duet a go?
Peace (Experimenting),
Kevin