Google Maps is Getting 'Supercharged' With Generative AI (theverge.com) 96
Google is bringing generative AI to Google Maps, promising to help users find cool places through the use of large language models (LLM). From a report: The feature will answer queries for restaurant or shopping recommendations, for example, using its LLM to "analyze Maps' detailed information about more than 250 million places and trusted insights from our community of over 300 million contributors to quickly make suggestions for where to go." Google says the feature will first become available in the US, but there's no word yet on when other countries will also get it.
Sure, Cool Places (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sure, Cool Places (Score:5, Funny)
And to drive into a lake halfway there. At least there's some chance that lake is just an hallucination.
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So what you're saying is it'll be competing with Apple Maps on an even footing.
(I kid, I kid. Apple Maps has been far better than Google for navigation of late...)
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(I kid, I kid. Apple Maps has been far better than Google for navigation of late...)
Non-Apple, public transport user with Google Maps here. How good is Apple Maps for public transportation? (I really like Google Live View, where I can pop up out of a subway with no NSEW orientation, point it at buildings and it's gives me a virtual overlay with animated arrows which direction to go.) I can imagine buying into iOS if navigation is somehow superior.
Re: Sure, Cool Places (Score:2)
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Google Maps works just fine on iPhones
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In the UK, both are the same, because both get their transit data feeds from https://www.bus-data.dft.gov.u... [dft.gov.uk]
Re: Sure, Cool Places (Score:2)
A lake - if you are lucky. You might end up on an active shooting range.
But recently Google maps have crappificated the terrain features and that have made their maps a lot worse. No difference between forest of fields and bad road contrast as well.
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I'm not clear about why you would think this, Google Maps does sometimes provide incorrect directions, but it's usually not far off.
In any case, they aren't necessarily involving AI in routing, but in improving search. For example, there have been some McDonald's locations that serve pizza. Maybe the new AI would enable searching for those kinds of one-off things.
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The pizza at McDonalds isn't pizza, though, so they should actually be excluded... hopefully ethnic cultural sensitivity would be a part of the AI model.
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I won't argue with you about McDonald's pizza! But it's neither higher or lower food quality than anything else it sells, including burgers. We definitely wouldn't want to offend Italian people by suggesting that McDonald's pizza is...pizza!
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For example, there have been some McDonald's locations that serve pizza.
You must be hallucinating.
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Point taken, pizza at McDonald's! Must be Alice's wonderland!
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I think this would be a reliable citation?
https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/e... [mcdonalds.com]
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Google maps routing is already good enough here in Finland that I know of several organizations that use it in automated calculation of work trip renumeration.
Is it really so bad elsewhere? Because all I'm seeing is them adding better recommendation system on top of the already existing excellent navigation service.
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Not walking but Driving to Mordor (Score:2)
No thanks (Score:5, Insightful)
I prefer my maps to be factional rather than generative.
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Factual maps, however, will be superior
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Nothing is being "generated" by your maps. Or nothing new anyway, Google maps have used generative techniques for decades already for maps. They are using it for suggestions of where to go when you type inaccurate stuff like "restaurants" or "clothing store" into the search. RTFS.
AI (Score:5, Interesting)
Is the AI going to be rewarded for providing you good service, or for providing Google with the most profit? Those goals are not aligned with each other.
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I suspect that these are are largely aligned with one another. They are probably not in a perfect correlation, but it's good enough to produce a pretty solid navigation algorithm, and very good method to search for specific services nearby. And google gets money from advertising those specific services.
I.e. best long term monetization scheme for google is the one it has been doing so far. To maximally understand your interests to the point of being able to either predict what it is you want before you know
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I would argue that it has recently, because my search results tend to be complete garbage, worse than Altavista was before Google stomped all over them.
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Re: AI (Score:3)
Personally (Score:5)
I'd just be happy if they'd put the damn road names on the maps so I know where to turn.
Re: Personally (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Personally (Score:5, Insightful)
First time using a google product i take it? =P
ALL of their updates seemingly exist entirely to make an existing service worse.
no reason/justification, just continually worse.
all the time.
Re:Personally (Score:5, Insightful)
That'd be like a smartphone that's good at making calls. Hasn't happened yet...
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"Turn at the closed-down Pizza Hut" is the postmodern aesthetic.
They believe if you can read a map you're a bourgeoise oppressor.
Literally youth sitting in a chair making $200K.
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You're literally a youth? With a slashdot id from the 90's? What did you do, pay someone for it?
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I was there Gandalf, 3000 years ago...
Re: Personally (Score:2)
Re:Personally (Score:4, Insightful)
Why are you reading your maps when you are driving. Listen to it's voice or read the single bold well written instruction at the top of your screen.
Literally stop staring at your map before you get someone killed.
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Looking at the map gives you a better understanding of the space and the manoeuvre you are about to make. Glancing at it when a turn is coming up is a very good idea.
You are supposed to leave enough space to be able to momentarily look away from the road ahead anyway.
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This is an easy one (Score:5, Funny)
SELECT Business_Name FROM * ORDER BY "Quarterly_AdSense_Spend" DESC, Distance;
Re:This is an easy one (Score:4, Insightful)
This was tagged funny but really was informative/insightful.
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I have business process patent on that. Pay up!
Correction (Score:1)
a
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generative maps are fake map (Score:2)
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I'm pretty sure they aren't going to be using AI to actually generate maps, but rather, to improve their ability to search the maps they have, in ways you can't already search. For example, searching for "Indoor water park" currently doesn't actually exclude outdoor water parks. Maybe AI can fix this.
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Nope, AI is what is deciding to ignore "indoor" to give you more search results.
That's it? Recommend Restaurants? (Score:1)
The last 25 years, tech breakthrough after tech breakthrough promises incredibly exciting "restaurant recommendations". App after Service after Site after...
Who Cares. Think of something better?
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I care. I do want better ways to search for restaurants, including selecting by certain kinds of recommendations. Or restaurants that have patio seating, or aren't near a busy freeway.
I'm pretty sure they aren't just stopping with restaurants though.
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I suspect they used that example specifically because it's easy enough to understand that "AI baaaaad" screeching is going to get easily debunked as you just did.
And I also suspect that actual use will be about being able to deliver answers to far more complex queries, because "good restaurant near me" already works pretty well without LLM.
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Your mileage may vary if you search for "good restaurant near me." When I use that search texts, McDonald's is among the results. I suppose it depends on your definition of "good."
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As I explained in this post:
https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
The main problem seems to be that google maps search is really, really bad. Doesn't properly support boolean operators level of bad.
And that is where LLM can actually help a lot. You can actually explain what "good" means to you, and then ask it to find you "good". As opposed to right now, where you can't even tell maps search to omit all results that are mcdonalds by prefixing it with a minus. Something that main google search has done for a long
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The vast majority of users don't understand boolean operators, so not supporting them doesn't seem as "bad" to me as it does to you. And web sites that implement boolean operator queries, usually do it in an extremely clunky and slow-performing way.
I agree that maps search is often stupid. Like "Mexican restaurants" will return all kinds of random restaurant results that aren't Mexican.
Will you really be able to "train" the AI what you mean by "good"? That remains to be seen.
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>Will you really be able to "train" the AI what you mean by "good"? That remains to be seen.
That is the core concept of LLMs and built into the current generation of tech. It's what prompting/superquerying skill is all about.
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I do love it when you project your woes on me so hard, it becomes utterly transparent.
Thanks for sharing the latest troubles in your life!
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That's a cool idea. Many posted photos by visitors could determine patios, buffets, cloth napkins, candlelight, piano music, etc.
Re:That's it? Recommend Restaurants? (Score:4, Insightful)
Who Cares. Think of something better?
Big Tech companies have poured billions upon billions into AI and are clutching at straws to plug it anywhere and in anything possible to justify the expense, however silly the application.
Also, if you don't have AI somewhere in your product nowadays, even if your product has no use for AI, your product isn't not groovy. AI is the Turbo label of the 2020's.
If this feels like a mountain begetting a mouse, that's because it's exactly what it is.
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You sound like someone who knows exactly where they want to go. That's not the case everywhere. This is not here to help you find your local KMart. This is here to help you find "restaurants" or "department stores". Many MANY such places are miss categorised in Google Maps, despite their descriptions or reviews making it clear what they are they don't show up in such search results.
This feels like just another company using just another tool to improve an imperfect product.
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I have no trouble finding a restaurant or a department store in any city in the world I've never set foot in. Even in Japan, I can type "Traditional restaurant nearby" and it will return restaurants nearby without me even knowing how to write or say "restaurant" or "nearby" in Japanese.
I can do that right now.
If your restaurant or department store is so miscategorized in Google Maps that your potential customers needs an AI to find you, you deserve to lose customers.
I sure hope I can opt the fuck out of this (Score:2)
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You can opt out already...use somebody else's maps. MapQuest is still around, Garmin, Tom Tom, Apple all have their own map alternatives. Use one of them.
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My kid laughed when I explained paper phone books to her.
Thanks, it's going to be even better when I explain folding paper maps. Great tip!
She had seen a rotary phone in a video but didn't know how to use it. Giggles when I said it was attached to the wall with a wire.
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Yeah the good old days!
Back in the 90's, you could get a literal book that contained maps of every street in Houston. It had about 600 pages, and was called "Key Maps" after the company that produced it. Back then, it was pretty much required for anybody who wanted to get around the city.
Thanks, but I'll use Google Maps, whether they are AI-enabled or not.
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If you're doing it on your phone, Apple Maps is actually really good these days. Gives advance notice of nes turn, lane to be in, etc, with least annoying voice I've heard, yet. Waze hasn't been ruined by Google yet, either but occasionally offers some bizarre routing advice.
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Well I'm glad Apple Maps has finally caught up! I'd try it, except that I use Android. :-)
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There's that :-)
I used Waze for years and would copy addresses to Waze manually from browser lookups but then was just like fuck it one day and let it do default Apple Maps. I was impressed by how good they'd become and now use them interchangeably with Waze.
Re:I sure hope I can opt the fuck out of this (Score:5, Funny)
I don't eat at Arby's or McDonalds, but gmaps feels compelled to prominently flood them on my maps anyways.
Had you been Googling for solutions to constipation before you opened maps by any chance?
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I suspect this is actually going to deliver on your ask. Because currently you can't tell google maps search "restaurants near X, -mcdonalds" and get all restaurants near X but mcdonalds ones. It's fucking stupid.
But you will be able to tell LLM recommendation engine "recommend restaurant near X to me, that is not mcdonalds." If it still recommends mcdonalds, you just reinforce the prompt with "same as before but exclude all mcdonads restaurants".
And you'll very quickly get your list.
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"It" being talked about is LLM. LLM is currently not deployed in google maps search, which is likely one of the reasons why it cannot tell the names of them. LLMs being inference machines do nothing but figure out the inferences such as names and their relevance to any potential query.
I.e. there's no need to "trust" LLM being able to do what LLM is inherently built around. As long as wheel isn't damaged, it can roll on its relevant side. As long as fireplace burns, is going to produce heat. As long as LLM w
Re: I sure hope I can opt the fuck out of this (Score:2)
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I prefer maps that work and I can actually read.
This isn't affecting your ability to read or the look of the maps at all. There's nothing for you to opt out of. RTFA if you want to understand what this actually does (and why it is transparent to you) before you decide whether you want to opt out.
Translated into practical English... (Score:3)
Ads, ads and more ads
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You mean paying for the free service you use?
Google knows best (Score:3)
There's definitely a bridge across the widest part of the Grand Canyon. Google Maps AI Edition says so.
So, it invents places now? (Score:2)
And when you try to get there, you land in a river or something?
Why? (Score:2)
There are so many "lower fruit" options they could implement before jumping on AI just based on google location service tracking. Like:
* Finding new places based on new "hot spots" at certain times of the day (common when a place hasn't made it to google maps yet, but they're doing business)
* Finding popular places based on repeat customers
* further invading peoples' privacy in one of a myriad ways
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Hot spot mapping is not necessary the best recommendation metric. In some areas you'll get redirected to the red light district or local crack house.
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Fake maps? (Score:3)
Will it hallucinate the delicious burger at a hallucinated restaurant? Will it lead me to drive over a hallucinated bridge? Maybe suggest the delicious mexican food at the chinese restaurant?
Am I the only person who thinks "LLM AI" is just a shitty party trick? Why would I ever trust it?
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It's not a hallucination. It's bullshit. Halucinations are an abnormal state. Generating bullshit is what LLMs do. It's fabricating something that appears plausible from its training data. It's just slightly fancier predictive typing, and we know how well those mother duckers work.
Finally (Score:2)
What's the map equiv of AI hallucinations (Score:2)
Thinking of all those AI images with "writing" or extra fingers or weird anatomy... all those "hallucinations" like entirely confabulating non existent case law
so I am terrified of the idea of AI mapping..
Remember when Apple was routing people into the ocean?
They managed to do that without LLMs and stable diffusion mucking about - I am just terrified by what kind of Seussian dystopia maps are going to enter if they let "AI" have at them..
Can we please just let some new thing of the week displace all the AI
Re: What's the map equiv of AI hallucinations (Score:2)
Makes sense (Score:2)
Re:Makes sense (Score:4, Informative)
I have so many questions (Score:2)
If you say 'cool places'... (Score:3)
Ugh. Nobody cares (Score:3)
Google Bob (Score:1)
"It looks like you are hungry for pizza, and want fast delivery because you are driving like a chimp on meth. Would you like pizza joint suggestions?"
Can't wait to be recommended a made-up restaurant (Score:1)
So. (Score:2)
So, as bad as search? (Score:1)
First, it doesn't offer any greater insight than the search results. In fact, it appears to just be regurgitating/munging the summary for the first handful of search results' summaries.
Second, it takes a LOT longer to return than the regular search results.
So, what is it going to bring to maps? Just more overlays and other complexities that takes a long time to load and that makes the map impossible to interact with