Google's Health AI coach, which replaced Fitbit Coach, is suggesting people ditch their pets and human families

[highplainsdem]

https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/fitbits-gemini-ai-coach-is-giving-users-unhinged-fitness-advice-heres-why-users-are-saying-they-cannot-wait-for-my-trial-to-end

Fitbit recently introduced a new fitness coach powered by Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence (AI), and it’s safe to say that it’s received a lot of flak from Fitbit users. Complaints have been flooding in, but surely few have been as bizarre as one recently posted to Reddit that involved some truly “unhinged” advice from Gemini.

Posting on Reddit, user bitteroldladybird started off by claiming that “The coach suggested I ditch my dog.” If that didn’t raise your eyebrows, what comes next surely will.

They continued by explaining that, “I’ve been walking my dog twice a day her whole life. Including the last year and a bit when I’ve had my Fitbit.”

But after that preamble, things start to get weird: “Recently the AI coach has been giving me feedback on my walks and it asked why my pace was so slow. I answered that I walk with my dog. This slows me down because she stops and sniffs and pees etc. Coach said it understood. Today it asked if I could ditch the dog to speed up my walks.” The user then opened the floor and asked fellow Redditors: “Has the coach given you weird or unhinged advice?”

I found that Reddit thread.

https://www.reddit.com/r/fitbit/comments/1ufd1o3/the_coach_suggested_i_ditch_my_dog

Some other posts there:

I got told to ditch my toddler... Turned coach off after that.


Mine is absolutely terrible. I've been fighting off a cold this week while at a conference in San Francisco. Two days ago it said my blood oxygen was low, then in the next sentence told me to use the breaks between sessions to walk up and down the SF hills! When I questioned that, it said I should go to urgent care. I think there's some sort of middle ground between "hike up and down the hills of SF" and "go to urgent care, you're dying"!


I had the strangest experience yesterday. I assume I'm using the AI Coach, although I;ve rarely interacted with it. I just like to see my stats. Anyway, last night I was going to a concert in the park, and I was taking a lawn chair. I did not enter anything on the Google Health app about my plans or day! In the afternoon I received a message saying 'your body needs to catch up before the concert tonight' It was followed with a suggestion to keep my energy high as 'I'll be carrying lawn chairs to the concert'. The only place this information would have appeared is in my text messages. I cannot believe the Google Health app is using information from my texts!


My Fitbit AI coach kept asking if my cats are the reason I’m not getting enough sleep and I told it to never bring up my cats again except in a positive way and it hasn’t. It made me hate it and want to chuck it. My precious kitties!!!!


Google’s ai is so damn stupid sometimes. I was researching apple Magic Trackpad and Gemini told me it would be great for my Plantar Fasciitis. For fuck sake, I am not browsing Reddit with my feet.


My coach suggested that I have a "sleep divorce" from my husband where we sleep in separate rooms lol.