Google Puts “Gems” into Docs, Drive, Sheets, and Gmail

Google has just added its customizable AI chatbots called “Gems” into into the side panel of Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drive, and Gmail. Gems are AI “experts” (assistants) that can help you with specific goals, tasks, and workflows.

Educators are likely to use Gems for lesson creation, communication tasks, summarizing sources, and more. There’s a wide range of premade Gems, but if you wish to create you own Gem, you can do so at gemini.google.com/gems/create. Both premade Gems and those you create will appear across all supported Workspace applications,

Tom’s Take: I tested Gems several months back and was underwhelmed. But Google AI has improved at an impressive clip of late and I am eager to see if Gem performance reflects that improvement.

You may remember that last year Google introduced 'Learning Coach' Gem – a custom chatbot that serves as a subject-matter expert. It’s designed to prompt students to think through problems, rather than simply providing answers. But, like with many Google tools, the introduction did not come with an actual deployable tool and the jury is still out whether Gems will provide significant value to teachers and students.

Related posts from Tom Daccord’s free newsletter:

• The AI Education Arms Race: GPT-4o and LearnLM Showcase the Transformation and Turbulence of Personalized Learning

• NotebookLM in Action: Takeaways from Testing Google's AI Research Assistant

• Exploring NotebookLM's new Discover Sources feature

• NotebookLM’s Latest Update: Interactive Mind Maps

• The State of Google AI Tools for Teaching and Learning

Also, visit:

• Google AI Classroom Tools (An Overview)