Gemini Task Automation Potential Beats ChatGPT
AI is set to revolutionize how we interact with our devices, making tasks faster and automating some entirely. Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini offer a preview of this future, with ChatGPT's tasks feature advancing this by allowing users to schedule automated actions.
While ChatGPT tasks are impressive in some aspects, there's potential for more. The current capabilities of ChatGPT tasks highlight what Google could achieve with a similar feature in Gemini, especially given Gemini's extensive integration across Google's ecosystem, including products, services, and Google Pixel phones.
Understanding ChatGPT Tasks
ChatGPT tasks, a feature deserving more attention, are more than just an AI-powered to-do list. They allow you to schedule tasks for AI to perform on your behalf or with you at a designated time. This enables AI to truly work for you.
Beyond basic scheduled reminders, like asking ChatGPT for an anniversary reminder, you can instruct it to perform more complex actions. For example, it can scan the web and summarize important tech news daily at 9 am, or help you practice a new language or skill regularly by creating scheduled tasks for these activities.
Moreover, ChatGPT can provide a summary of an important meeting 15 minutes before it starts, ensuring you're prepared. For personal use, like managing a knee injury, I've set up a task in ChatGPT to share a push-pull workout routine at 6 pm daily, focusing on exercises that don't strain my knee. Without tasks, this would be a repetitive, multi-step daily process.
Another practical application involves medication management. By taking a picture of my wife's medicine and providing context like daily dosage, I've asked ChatGPT to set a reminder three days before the medication runs out so I can reorder. While sometimes I need to manually input the remaining capsule count because ChatGPT can't always accurately determine this from an image, the overall process is still effective.
None of the leading to-do apps on Android offer this level of AI integration. It's important to note that ChatGPT tasks are currently supported only by the o3 and o4-mini models, and users are limited to 10 active tasks.
Where Gemini Could Excel Beyond ChatGPT
Despite their impressiveness, after using ChatGPT tasks extensively for several weeks, I've noticed significant shortcomings. A key limitation is that you cannot use ChatGPT tasks on Android or iPhone to alter system settings. For instance, I can't create a recurring task via ChatGPT on Android to turn off my phone's 5G at night. Similarly, ChatGPT on Android cannot interact with other apps, which restricts the scope of what can be automated.
ChatGPT tasks are confined to the ChatGPT environment, limiting their reach. This is precisely where Gemini has an opportunity to shine and potentially do better.
Currently, Gemini lacks a feature comparable to ChatGPT tasks. If you ask it to set a reminder or create a schedule, it simply adds the item to Google Tasks. There's no mechanism for Gemini to autonomously take action on your behalf at a scheduled time.
Google has a significant opportunity to learn from the limitations of ChatGPT tasks. With Gemini's deep Android integration, Google could deliver a seamless and powerful task automation experience when it decides to launch such a feature.
Gemini's ability to interact with other Android apps and control system settings is a major advantage. Google should leverage this integration for a superior tasks-like feature in Gemini. For example, in my workout routine scenario, I could ask Gemini to share the workout routine only when I am physically at the gym. This kind of location-based task or reminder is not possible with ChatGPT tasks.
Imagine setting up a recurring task in Gemini that uses its Gmail integration to email your team members every Friday afternoon with an overview of meetings scheduled for the upcoming week. Similarly, Google could utilize Gemini's Google Home integration to set up scheduled smart home tasks, such as turning on outdoor lights daily at 5 pm. While you can currently ask Gemini to control your smart home, setting up a recurring task isn't possible; you must create a separate automation for this.
The Future of AI Task Automation: Gemini vs ChatGPT
With Gemini deeply integrated with Android and other Google services, Google is well-positioned to offer a superior alternative to ChatGPT tasks with its AI chatbot. This might explain why the company hasn't yet rolled out a similar option in Gemini. Both sides, however, have room to grow.
Implementing such a complex feature, even with AI assistance, is a challenging undertaking that can take considerable time. I hope Google takes the necessary time to perfect it rather than rushing its implementation.
Furthermore, it would be unwise to count OpenAI out of this race. The current ChatGPT tasks feature is just its first iteration, and the company may well enhance its capabilities significantly in the future, possibly by tying it to broader changes or deeper integrations.
