Beyond LLMs, there are also custom tools available that can help you process the kinds of conditions you might encounter, including weather and traffic. If you’re planning a city break, you might want to check out Immersive View, a feature for Google Maps that Google released last year. It uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to create a 3D model that depicts how a specific location in a supported city will look at a specific time of day up to four days into the future. Because it can draw on weather forecasts and traffic data, it could help you predict whether a rooftop bar will still be sunny tomorrow afternoon, or whether you’d be better off taking a different route for a weekend trip.
How to use it: Check to see if your city is enabled this list. Then open Google Maps, navigate to an area of interest and select Immersive view. An interactive map will appear with the option to change the date and time of day you want to check.
Check flights and accommodationsmall
Once you’ve decided where you’re going, booking flights and a place to stay is the next thing to tackle. Many travel booking sites have integrated AI chatbots into their sites, the vast majority of which are powered by ChatGPT. But if you’re not particularly committed to using a particular site, it could be worth looking at the bigger picture.
Searching for flights across multiple browser tabs can be cumbersome, but Google’s Gemini has a solution. The model integrates with Google Flights and Google Hotels, pulling real-time information from Google partners in a way that makes it easy to compare times and, most importantly, prices.
This is a quick and easy way to search for flights and accommodation within your personal budget. For example, I commissioned Gemini to show me flights for a return trip from London to Paris for under £200. It’s a great starting point to get a general idea of how much you’re likely to spend and how long it will take you to get there.
How to use it: Once you have Gemini open (you may need to sign in to a Google account to do this), open Settings and go to Extensions to check it Google flights and hotels it is activated. Then return to the main Gemini page and enter your enquiry, specifying where you are flying from and to, the length of your stay and any cost requirements you may wish to share.
If you’re a spreadsheet fan, you can have Gemini export the design to Spreadsheets, which you can then share with friends and family.
Practice your language skills
You’ve probably heard that the best way to get better at another language is to practice speaking it. However, teachers can be expensive and you may not know anyone else who speaks the language you are trying to learn.
In September last year, OpenAI updated ChatGPT to allow users to talk into it. You can try it yourself using the ChatGPT app for Android or iOS. I turned on the voice chat option and read her a few basic French phrases that successfully translated into English (“Do you speak English?” “Can you help me?” and “Where is the museum?”) despite my poor pronunciation. He was also good at offering alternative phrases when I asked him for less formal examples, such as exchange good morning (hello) for I greet, which translates as “hello”. And it allowed me to have basic conversations with the disembodied AI voice.