[nine_k]

> you can just search your files using your prefered file explorer

This only work if you remember specific substrings. An LLM (or some other language model) can summarize and interpolate. It can be asked to find that file that mentions a transaction for buying candy, and it has a fair chance to find it, even if none of the words "transaction", "buying" or "candy" are present in the file, e.g. it says "shelled out $17 for a huge pack of gobstoppers".

> I'd assume most people organise their files

You'll be shocked, but...

[dmbche]

But isn't that candy example non-sensical? In what situation do you need some information without any of the context(or without knowing any of the context)?

i really believe that this is not an actual problem in need of solving, but instead creating a tool (personal ai assistant) and trying to find a usecase

Edit0: note to self, rambling - assuming there exist valuable information that one needa to access in their files, but one doesn't know where it is, when it was made, it's name or other information about it(as you could find said file right away with this information).

Say you need an information for some documentation like the C standard - you need precise information on some process. Is it not much simpler to just open the doc and use the index? Then again for you to be aeare of the C standard makes the query useless.

If it's from something less well organised, say you want letters you wrote to your significant other, maybe the assistant could help. But then again, what are you asking? How hard is it to keep your letters in a folder? Or even simply know what you've done (I surely can't imagine forgetting things I've created but somehow finding use in a llm that finds it for me).

Like asking it "what is my opinion on x" or "what's a good compliment I wrote" is nonsensical to me, but asking it about external ressources makes the idea of training it on your own data pointless. "How did I write X API" - just open your file, no? You know where it is, you made it.

Like saying "get me that picture of unle tony in Florida" might save you 10 seconds instead of going into your files and thinking about when you got that picture, but it's not solving a real issue or making things more efficient. (Edit1: if you don't know Tony, when you got the picture or of what it's a picture of, why are you querying? What's the usecase for this information, is it just to prove it can be done? It feels like the user needs to contorts themselves in a small niche for this product to be useful)

Either it's used for non valuable work (menial search) or you already know how to get the answer you need.

I cannot imagine a query that would be useful compared to simply being aware of what's in your computer. And if you're not aware of it, how do you search for it?

[mjlee]

I think your brain may just work differently to mine, and I don't think I'm unique.

> "get me that picture of unle tony in Florida" might save you 10 seconds instead of going into your files and thinking about when you got that picture

I don't have a memory for time, and I can't picture things in my mind. Thinking about when I took a picture does nothing for me, I could be out by years. Having some unified natural language search engine would be amazing for me. I might remember it was a sunny day and that we got ice cream, and that's what I want to search on.

The "small niche" use case for me is often my daughter wants to see a photo of a family member I'm talking about, or I want to remember some other aspect of the day and the photo triggers that for me.

[dmbche]

Makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the response, enjoy your day!

[IanCal]

> But isn't that candy example non-sensical? In what situation do you need some information without any of the context(or without knowing any of the context)?

I know the context and the content but not the specific substrings in an email I received several years ago.

Here's one of the first things that gemini in gmail actually helped with. I wanted to check when I bought a car seat for my kids, which one it was and how much it cost.

So I knew the rough time it was when I bought it, I know it's a receipt I'm looking for, it's for a child seat, and roughly when. I know the context here.

What I struggled with was finding the exact text that would be in that. There are hundreds or more emails with invoice/receipt/order in. I didn't recall exactly who I bought it from, and there are large numbers of more advertising emails with kids seats in.

I couldn't easily find it, because the actual email I wanted did not say child seat in it. It had a brand and other information, but nothing in the text had a substring I was searching for. I might have found it with "booster seat" but I didn't think of that exact phrase at the time.

Instead I asked gemini to find it. That can then trawl through a bunch of emails and find things that mean but do not say child seat.

[dmbche]

Makes total sense, I'm not entirely sure why but I had assumed we were talking about an AI assistant being device specific, which I understood as "based on my offline data and files" - I'm saying I'm not sure why because the parent comment is specifically mentionning the cloud. Anyhoot.

Enjoy your day.

[pizza]

Here’s an example of a type of feature I want: I’m looking at a menu from a popular restaurant and it has hundreds of choices. I start to feel some analysis paralysis. I say to my computer, “hey computer, I’m open to any suggestions, so long as it’s well-seasoned, spicy, salty, has some protein and fiber, easy to digest, rich in nutrients, not too dry, not too oily, pairs well with <whatever I have in my fridge>, etc..” Basically, property-oriented search queries whose answers can be verified, without having to trudge through them myself, where I don’t really care about correctness, just satisficing.

[ozim]

I think the same, people are not organized - even with things that make them money and being organized could earn them much more.