Google's Gemini AI App See a 32% Drop in Downloads in One Month

Within months of launching Google’s new AI chatbot, Gemini, the app is seeing falling interest as new users fail to take it up. According to Stocklytics.com, Gemini’s downloads shrunk by over 32% from May’s peak, highlighting the app’s massively reduced appeal.

The site’s financial analyst, Edith Reads, comments:

The recent disclosure of Gemini’s inaccuracies has severely undermined user trust and confidence, detrimentally affecting the application’s luster. Moreover, Gemini’s development came long after ChatGPT, Open AI’s chatbot, established a strong presence in today’s market, making it difficult to match its dominance.

Stocklytics financial analyst, Edith Reads

Gemini’s Download Overview

As of February 2024, the Gemini AI app had accumulated over 555,000 downloads, showcasing a relatively positive market reception. However, the momentum quickly cooled as the chatbot’s download numbers slipped drastically, landing at 141,296 by March’s end. Sadly, this downward spiral persisted, with Gemini settling for just over 125,000 in April.

Nevertheless, the AI assistant experienced a remarkable recovery in May, resulting in an impressive 720,630 downloads, marking an 83% increase from the previous month’s figures. Despite this resurgence, the app’s fortunes took a turn for the worse as downloads swiftly plummeted to 493,051 in June 2024. This decline underscores Google’s challenge in maintaining user acquisition momentum and sustaining interest in the app.

Gemini Shortcomings

Gemini’s failure to secure a high download tally stems from setbacks in recent months, which exposed the program’s ‘hallucinations’. For example, a recent issue with historically inaccurate images led Google to suspend its image service towards the end of February. The AI assistant faced significant criticism for depicting historical figures, such as the U.S. Founding Fathers, as people of color.

The New York Times also cited Gemini’s response to a pizza recipe that included glue as one of the ingredients and a recommendation to ingest rocks for nutrients, arousing doubts about the chatbot’s ability to provide accurate answers.  

Gemini’s failure to provide accurate image service and chatbot responses has raised grave concerns about Google’s technology testing and evaluation process.

Professor Dame Wendy Hall, a computer science expert at the University of Southampton and a member of the UN’s advisory body on AI, shared a similar perspective. She opined that Google had hastily launched the Gemini app to counter OpenAI’s runaway success with ChatGPT and DALL-E and had consequently failed to conduct thorough technology testing.