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> Google has butchered Assistant since the advent of LLMs. My Google Home devices have lost basically all of their functionality

I’ve seen this said a few times lately, yet I’ve not really seen much of an explanation of exactly how it’s regressed.

Maybe it’s just a difference in how we use ours, but it still has worked the same as it always has.

Out uses are fairly basic, but I’m not sure how much more complex it needs to be:

- tell us the current/forecasted weather

- pick random numbers/flip a coin (playing board games)

- ask it for information about X

- play music on Spotify

- carry out actions in our home devices

All of these have always worked, and continue to work just fine. For from “lost all of their functionality” (this feels exaggerated).

Can you/others go into more details on how Google Home has become broken lately?

3 comments

I had mine setup to turn the lights off when I said 'lights out'. Now when I say 'lights out' it tells me that 'Lights Out' is a 2016 movie.

Yeah, I have noticed that some commands are now interpreted differently/incorrectly.

But I’ve just started being less ambiguous with commands now. E.g. simply “turn lights out” has worked for me.

So I guess I wouldn’t call that “broken” or “butchered”.

Ours doesn't answer questions of any sort and hasn't for months. "Sorry, I can't answer that, try asking something else". The only advantage the Home has had over Alexa was question answering, and that's gone now.

Yes, most of the features you describe are still there, but I can also implement those myself with the right hardware and plan to as a replacement. Google killed what unique value there was to their product.

The current favourite frustration of reddit seems to be that in the past you could cancel requests, by saying "Never mind".

Apparently now saying "Never mind" gets you an in-depth speech about Nirvana's album, or it playing.

i am plagued by this and interpretations of my regular speech. i must rename some devices more uniquely now.