Google changed the name of your chatbot with artificial intelligence (AI) from Bard to Gemini, announced that starting today this technology will be available in a new Gemini application for Android and through the Google application on iOS and, in addition, launched an “advanced” paid version.
Shortly after the popularity of ChatGPTfrom Open IA, Goggle launched its Bard chatbot in early 2023 and at the end of the year announced its Gemini multimodal model.
The vice president and general director of Gemini experiences and Google assistant, Sissie Hsiao, said in a press conference that, Beyond the name and logo change, the chatbot – which is powered by the Gemini Pro language model (LLM) and is available globally in 40 languages - is the same.
“Self-awareness is a tricky thing for models, so if (Gemini) is asked on Thursday 'What's your name?' Maybe he'll answer, 'I'm Bard,'” Hsiao noted.
Today Google also launches in USA the Gemini mobile app for Android and access to Gemini from the Google app on iOS, where users can write, speak and share images with the chatbot.
“It is a very important first step towards creating a true AI assistant,” Hsiao stressed, explaining that users can take a photo of a flat tire and that Gemini will respond with a step-by-step tutorial on how to change it.
In the case of Android phones, in addition, Gemini can become the phone's main assistant, while users can activate Gemini with the center button of their phone or by saying: “Hey Google” or “Ok Google.”
Starting next week, Google will launch Gemini app access across the Asia-Pacific region in English, Japanese, and Korean, with more countries and languages including Spanish coming soon.
Another Google launch today in 150 countries is Gemini Advanced, where the chatbot has access to LLM Ultra 1.0 and, meanwhile, is capable of responding – for now only in English – to more complex tasks, such as programming, logical reasoning or creative collaboration.
“Gemini Advanced not only allows you to type longer prompts, but you can also better understand the context of your previous prompts,” explains Hsiao.
The subscription to access Gemini Advanced will cost $19.99 per month and also gives access to the Google One premium package and its 2 terabytes of Google storage.
“We are excited for people to start testing Gemini Advanced. So we have a two-month free trial that will be available on Thursday,” announced Shimrit Ben-Yair, vice president of Google Photos and Google One.
In addition, the company announced that it is working so that “soon” Google One AI Premium users will be able to use Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Meet.
With these announcements, Google tries to demonstrate that it is still in the fight to become the reference company when it comes to chatbots, a fight in which other heavyweights such as OpenAI and Microsoft are also participating, which also offers a subscription to use AI in your Microsoft 365 applications.