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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- A new Google tool named CC aims to help you tackle daily tasks.
- The daily briefing highlights items from Gmail and Google Calendar.
- CC can also search the web to answer your questions and requests.
Ever feel overwhelmed by all the emails, appointments, and other tasks facing you after you wake up in the morning? I know I do. To relieve some of the pressure, Google is kicking off a new AI-powered tool designed to help you get a handle on the day ahead.
Defined by Google as an AI productivity agent, CC sends you a personalized briefing every morning. By connecting to your Gmail and Google Calendar content, CC can see what awaits you in your inbox and calendar. The tool then boils it all down into a game plan for you to follow for the day.
As a fresh experiment, CC is accessible through Google Labs, the company’s incubator for new AI-infused ideas and products. For now, the tool is up for early access across Google consumer accounts, starting with Google AI Ultra and paid subscribers, Google said in a blog post. Even then, you’ll have to join a waitlist.
How to get CC, and how it works
Head to CC’s Google Labs page, click the button to join the waitlist, and then watch for your first email to arrive. I received early access to the tool, so I was able to take it for an initial spin.
After you’re onboard, you’ll receive an introductory email welcoming you to the service. Here, CC explains that its job is to help you stay organized, get things done, and give back time for what matters most. Titled “Your Day Ahead,” the daily email then shows you key tasks, updates, and events to give you a head start for tackling your day.
In my case, the first daily email told me about an email in Gmail from a company rep pitching a story on a product. From the briefing, I could view the email or reply to it directly. Choosing to reply to the email created a response generated by AI. I typically avoid using AI to generate text that I’d prefer to write myself. But this can be a time saver, especially in cases when I have to respond to a lot of story pitches in a typical day.
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There’s more to CC. As with any AI, you can ask the agent questions and send it requests. For this, you get a dedicated email address with +CC appended to your regular Gmail address. Just send your message to that address, and CC will answer you.
I told the agent to notify me of any emails about Google Voice, as my current number was due to expire. In response, CC sent me a follow-up email alerting me to a new message about my Google Voice number.
I next told it to summarize some articles I store on Google Drive. Here’s where the agent dropped the ball. Google’s blog post clearly says that CC is able to work with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive. But the tool told me that it couldn’t access my Google Drive for privacy reasons. When I pressed it for more info, it told me that the blog post describes a “broader vision” for its capabilities and that access is currently limited to emails and the calendar.
On the plus side, CC can also search the web. I asked it to summarize the most recent articles on ZDNET written by Lance Whitney. In response, it sent me brief one-sentence summaries of my two most recent stories. I followed up by asking it to provide longer and more detailed summaries. But like many AIs, CC proved to be stubborn.
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Though the tool initially found my two articles by searching the web, it kept trying to look for them in Gmail when I asked it for longer summaries. I had to keep rephrasing my request in each email to CC until it finally provided the response I wanted. Of course, such problems are almost to be expected with a new and experimental tool, especially one that relies on AI, which itself is fallible.
The other downside is that it works only with your personal Google content. I don’t use Gmail as my primary email nor do I use Google Calendar for appointments. If the same is true for you, then you won’t get much out of CC. But if you do use these programs as your default apps, then CC is an interesting experiment. Hopefully, Google will fine-tune and improve it to address some of the glitches and make it work more effectively.
Source: Networking - zdnet.com
