The Travel AI Tools Mature

by Robert McGarvey

Probably the biggest change I have experienced in my personal travel planning since the arrival of the World Wide web some 30 years ago is today’s rollout of generative AI tools, especially by Google and Chat GPT. 

That means bigger than iPhone, bigger than the many hundreds of travel apps, bigger than the admittedly sometimes useful airline apps. AI is huge and getting bigger.

Don’t they misfire? Sure, we all saw Google’s recent ai “hallucinations” – notoriously, to one user’s question about how to keep cheese from sliding off pizza, Google suggested a dollop of glue but do note it suggested non toxic glue (Elmer’s) and probably it would actually work and wouldn’t really harm the taste of many homemade pies.

But as Google rejiggers its search screens -putting emphasis on AI driven “overviews” – it has gotten sensitive about the mockery its overviews sometimes have triggered and accordingly it’s issued a white paper.  

Interestingly, Google says that many of its slip ups happened when questions that involve “data voids” were asked. That’s a question like how many rocks should I eat?  Nobody really had asked that question until the Internet’s merry pranksters sought to embarrass Google’s AI and the ploy kind of worked.

Remember, generative AI revolves around scraping bushels of information across the web and sorting it into best answers.  Where there are few web documents, what are you going to expect? Garbage in, garbage out.

I just asked Google how to cook baby armadillo. It returned not a summary, overview paragraph but links to Youtube and websites that offered how-to’s.  Did those sites have silly info? Doubtless some did. But Google neatly ducked any blame for silly content by just pointing to it and allowing caveat emptor to rule.

If you were online 30 years ago every day you saw improvement.  Ditto nowadays.  Every day Google and Chat GPT get better.

For $19.99 per month I now get Google Gemini Advanced, its pro version, as well as two terabytes of storage and a few more benefits in a package marketed as Google One AI premium.

I just asked Gemini to tell me the best sites related to Spain’s Civil war (the battle between Fascists and progressives where the fascists won) and it came back with a list of the obvious — such as Picasso’s Guernica housed in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía — but also a pointer to Belchite, an Aragonese town that was “completely destroyed during the war and has been left as a memorial. It’s a haunting and evocative place that serves as a reminder of the conflict’s devastation.” I had never heard of Belchite and now it’s on my to do list.

Last weekend I was at Potato Patch Campground in Arizona and when I got home, to see if I missed anything i shouldn’t have, I just asked Gemini to tell me the best activities at Potato Patch.  It came back with hiking, wildlife viewing (can’t say I saw anything unusual but there were many signs saying black bears are around; I saw none), stargazing (indeed excellent), fishing at Mingus Lake nearby (I don’t fish but probably an excellent suggestion for some), scenic driving (you bet, the 10 mile drive in from US 17 is a twisting and turning maze with extraordinary views – but if you are driving keep your eyes on the road), visiting Jerome (we did and the old mining town is abuzz.  Gemini didn’t  mention it but a few miles beyond Jerome is Cottonwood, also worth a visit); and just kicking back at the campground which in fact has large individual camping spaces – private, quiet.  

In this Potato Patch case Gemini didn’t tell me anything I didn’t know but it did remind me of what makes Potato Patch worth multiple visits.

I’m just back from spending several nights in a hotel in Fountain Hills AZ where I attended long daily meetings and so I asked Gemini what’s the best hotel in Fountain Hills. When I saw the results I was surprised because the place I stayed at wasn’t on the list and nor were a few other places I knew of. Then it dawned on me that I’d asked the wrong question. So I went back with: what are the best resorts in Fountain Hills? The places I knew all popped up on that list (including where I stayed).

If at first you don’t like the results you are seeing, rephrase and try again.

My strong advice: when going anywhere ask Chat GPT or Google Gemini what to do there. You just may be surprised with the results. And you’ll probably learn about something you hadn’t been aware of or reminded of something cool that you’d forgotten