AI is now more enjoyable – and inescapable

I hate to admit it but I just spent the better part of an hour chatting with Gemini just to see that colourful glow on my screen. Well, also to get some inputs on how to reverse my reversed sleep cycle — it had some useful tips. But what can I say, I love colourful things and I like tech that delights.

From Google’s recent developer event, Google I/O, you can see that they’ve really infused their avalanche of new products and features with some of that delight factor. The offerings that were unleashed, other than being smarter, more integrated into what you already do, and agentic, also included a layer of enjoyment.

That’s as it should be: why should software be robotic and rigid? It should be easier and natural to use. ‘Charming’ as Google likes to call it. But as you can guess, that’s where the danger lies.

For all these years, software succeeded by being useful. Search engines, spreadsheets, forms, menus, mail… Software was there to solve problems (including some that didn’t exist). Now, with Gemini becoming part of the operating system on devices, cars, home networks and everywhere else, the emphasis isn’t just on efficiency. It’s on making interaction feel intuitive, fluid, conversational and entertaining. The interface with AI is intentionally aiming at being enjoyable, not just functional.

Colourful glow

There are many enjoyable elements being built into AI. In fact, it’s an entire new direction, as it becomes designed to keep users comfortable and pleased. But that colourful glow you get when chatting with Gemini is specifically an interesting example of what’s happening.

The pulsing glow is not just cosmetic. It’s supposed to deeply affect the user by syncing with the natural rhythm of breathing, which apparently creates a subtle illusion of vitality and presence. Say goodbye, sometime soon, to the static blinking cursor that feels demanding and signals a cold machine waiting for you to do something. The dynamic ambient light moves across the screen whenever the AI is ‘listening’ or ‘thinking’.

Psychologically, this design choice, called Neural Expressive Design, changes the mood of the interaction somewhat. It softens the experience, transforming what would otherwise be a sterile text exchange into something that feels reactive to you. The AI now feels like it’s attentive, with you, and that it will soon tell you something. It’s meant to ease conversational friction.

Beware of the charm

Every day, real-life conversation is anything but devoid of friction. And the friction is extremely important. It makes you question, pause, grapple with an idea and build skills to cope with it. If too much enjoyment and pleasantness is packed into AI, it becomes easy enough to let one’s guard down and stop questioning. Compared with normal human conversation, there’s also no natural pause here to give time to think for yourself. Whatever you’re told seems safe and true. It’s much like we became used to thinking of the printed word as being gospel truth.

A few days ago, I fed a bunch of sources of information into NotebookLM, one of my favourite products. This impressive Google AI-based knowledge system is supposed to stay grounded in the sources you give and not stray into any misinformation territory. Or so it says. I found out, to my horror, that it does nothing of the sort. Asking it a question for which I was supposed to get answers rooted in the files I gave it, I was presented with a fascinating bit of psycho-physiological data. I asked for the source. NotebookLM remained mum. I asked again. Finally, it said that this information was not from my sources and not from outside sources either and that it couldn’t tell me its origin. I was entirely shocked. NotebookLM had actually hallucinated information and presented it neatly wrapped up with my own data sources. I felt almost bullied as I dumped the notebook and moved on. I was thankful I had not let go of questioning and verifying. As ‘charming’ AI threads into the products we use, that will be an ever-present danger.

Google isn’t the only company trying to make users more comfortable with its AI products. They all do it. Using your first name to make it feel personal to you, remembering facts about you that only close friends and family might care to, adjusting and personalising output to suit your expectations — it’s all part of making AI a companion rather than functional software. Very soon, Apple will also be announcing its AI initiatives and it will be interesting to see how they approach the ‘niceification’ of their AI offerings.

The New Normal: The world is at an inflexion point. Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to be as massive a revolution as the Internet has been. The option to just stay away from AI will not be available to most people, as all the tech we use takes the AI route. This column series introduces AI to the non-techie in an easy and relatable way, aiming to demystify and help a user to actually put the technology to good use in everyday life.

Mala Bhargava is most often described as a ‘veteran’ writer who has contributed to several publications in India since 1995. Her domain is personal tech, and she writes to simplify and demystify technology for a non-techie audience.