Google's Gemini Spark Planned My Family Vacation — and It Was Both Brilliant and Disturbing
For years, tech demos have promised that AI could plan your trip. Just tell it where you're going, and it'll find hotels, restaurants, and activities. In practice, that usually means getting a list of the same six tourist spots in any city. But Google's new Gemini Spark is something else entirely.
I tested Spark, Google's always-on AI agent that's rolling out to its $99/month AI Ultra plan. After it sorted my inbox and tracked down old tasks in Google Docs, I gave it a real challenge: plan a weekend in Hershey, Pennsylvania, for me, my wife, two kids, and our dog.
Minutes later, Spark returned a detailed itinerary. It knew my home address without being told. It found my dog's name, Frida, from vet emails. It noted that my son Lewis gets into Hersheypark for free (under 1) while Arthur, age 3, needs a ticket. It scheduled nap time at 1:30 PM — and got it right. It included my wife's name and her dislike of onions. It even found the concert tickets for Saturday night in my email and noted that parking was already covered.
When I mentioned my parents were joining to babysit, Spark happily called them by name and switched its hotel recommendation to an Airbnb. It drafted an email to my wife with all the details.
The only failure came when I asked it to book the Airbnb. Spark navigated to the site but got blocked by security policies. It offered alternatives instead.
On one hand, this is the most useful AI I've ever used. It felt like a real assistant — one who knows everything about you. On the other hand, it's deeply unsettling. Spark casually referenced my children's names and ages, my dog's name, and details I never explicitly shared. Google already has all this data, but seeing it mined so effortlessly — even for my benefit — feels invasive.
This is the trade we're being asked to make: the more you share, the more useful the AI becomes. Google is in a unique position because it already has the data. The rest are scrambling to catch up. We're paying for this service, and our lives — our emails, photos, schedules — are both the raw material and the final product. I'll likely have a wonderful weekend in Hershey. But I won't shake the feeling that I'm being watched. Supposedly for my own good.