Fitbit’s Gemini AI coach is giving users ‘unhinged’ fitness advice — here’s why users are saying they ‘cannot wait for my trial to end’ | Tech Radar

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Fitbit’s Gemini AI coach is giving users ‘unhinged’ fitness advice — here’s why users are saying they ‘cannot wait for my trial to end’

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Fitbit devices have a new fitness coach powered by Gemini AI

But the AI seems to be giving people extremely questionable advice

Users have voiced their dissatisfaction with the feature

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?”

Funnily enough, bitteroldladybird was far from the only person to relate a story like this. User Kate J95 recounted how “I got told to ditch my toddler … Turned coach off after that.” Individual_Sun 2060, on the other hand, said “My coach incessantly tells me to rest, and has probably suggested I take the day off EVERY SINGLE DAY.”

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User vemailangah, meanwhile, had a helpful suggestion for Fitbit’s next update: “coach sends AI robot to get rid of the dog to help you improve your walks.”

Tech Radar’s own Matt Evans has had a similarly bizarre experience with Fitbit’s AI coach, explaining that it developed an obsession with a minor cold and wouldn’t let the issue go. After Evans didn’t wear his Fitbit for one day — and therefore logged zero steps or workouts — the AI chimed in with: “yesterday was a full recovery day with minimal movement.”

As Matt explained, it seemed that Gemini “really thought I spend 12 hours lying perfectly still, like a mummy in a sarcophagus.”

Judging by the feedback from people on Reddit and here at Tech Radar, it seems that Fitbit’s AI coach is tuned a little too strongly towards fitness efficiency and improvement. If it detects any sort of “hindrance” that it feels is slowing you down, it suggests jettisoning it at the earliest opportunity — even if that means ditching your beloved pup.

Tech Radar’s Evans points out that this behavior could be because Gemini “just kind of latches on to any context you give it, and is designed to improve your health — occasionally to its detriment when it comes to subtlety and context.” Because you know far more about yourself than Gemini does, the chatbot has to take any cue it can in order to build a picture of your wellbeing. And if you mention something tangentially relevant in your life, Gemini has a few other resources for context.

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Aside from creating the kinds of bizarre situations that we’ve seen here, this issue limits the fitness coach’s utility. Another thread on Reddit asked “Does anyone actually use the AI Coach?” and was filled with replies from people who have lost patience with the feature. “When the trial ends, I’m out. Coach is garbage,” said flanga, while real Man Ting shared that “I find myself yelling at it over text and I cannot wait for my trial to end.”

As the original poster in that thread put it, the coach “constantly gives me long walls of text that are either obvious, outdated or just not useful. I don’t want to read an essay every time I open the app — I just want short, actionable insights.”

It therefore seems clear that Gemini’s AI coach is not particularly popular among Fitbit users and has a worrying tendency to offer questionable advice and to irritate them. Hopefully Google can make some rapid improvements before it suggests anyone else dump their dog to record a slightly faster walk.

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Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he's learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That's all his brain can hold. As well as Tech Radar, Alex writes for i More, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at Mac Format magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.

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News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets
Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more
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Unlock instant access to exclusive member features
Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards