Tech giant, Google, has announced that its AI model, Bard, will now be called Gemini as it introduced more advanced features to challenge OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
While Bard (Gemini) has been a free tool, Google said it is now introducing Gemini Advanced as a paid plan. According to the company, Gemini Advanced will be available in more than 150 countries and territories, but only in English for the time being.
The company is also launching a new Gemini app for Android and bringing it to the Google app on iOS. On Android, Google said users can now replace their Google Assistant with Gemini.
What Google is saying
Announcing the name change and the advanced features via a statement released on Thursday, Google said:
- “Bard has been the best way for people to directly experience our most capable models. To reflect the advanced tech at its core, Bard will now simply be called Gemini. It’s available in 40 languages on the web and is coming to a new Gemini app on Android and on the Google app on iOS.
- “The version with Ultra will be called Gemini Advanced, a new experience far more capable at reasoning, following instructions, coding, and creative collaboration. For example, it can be a personal tutor, tailored to your learning style. Or it can be a creative partner, helping you plan a content strategy or build a business plan. You can read more in this post.
- “Anyone can start using Gemini Advanced by subscribing to the new Google One AI Premium plan, which offers the best of Google’s AI features in a single place. This premium plan builds off the popular Google One service offering expanded storage and exclusive product features.”
Google noted that more than 1 million people are using features like Help Me Write to enhance their productivity and creativity through Duet AI. It said the Duet AI will now become Gemini for Workspace, and soon consumers with the Google One AI Premium plan can use Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Meet.
Competition driving advancement in AI
Google’s major rival in the AI business, Open AI, at its Developer Conference in November unveiled the GPT-4 Turbo, which is a “more powerful” and less expensive version of its flagship text-generating AI model, GPT-4. The GPT-4 Turbo comes in two versions: one that’s strictly text-analyzing and a second version that understands the context of both text and images.
In December, Google launched its new generative AI models with flagship Gemini Ultra, “lite” Gemini Pro, and Gemini Nano, which is designed to run on devices like the Pixel 8. At the same time, the company updated Bard with Gemini Pro for conversations in English.