New Delhi, Aug. 1 -- I was writing to my friend Joy in faraway Pennsylvania when I thought to ask her how she was preparing for her son's visit, which was due soon. I didn't remember the date or if she had even mentioned one.

For the first time, I used the Gemini button in Gmail to ask a highly specific question, the answer to which may or may not be in just one or two emails from a while ago. "Did Joy say when her son was due to visit them?"

But that wasn't a challenge for the AI. It came back in a second with the precise email that did, in fact, mention the date. It also figured out who her son was, though we had only used his name in the email exchange. Gemini's understanding of the context got me the answer I wanted so quickly that ...