The race for the leading artificial intelligence model is on. OpenAI has GPT 4, Microsoft has the Llama 2, and now, Google’s parent company Alphabet has unveiled Gemini, the tech giant’s largest and most capable AI model to date.
The model is the brainchild of the company’s recently merged AI research units DeepMind and Google Brain into a single division called Google DeepMind, led by CEO Demis Hassabis.
Gemini is a model that has been built from the ground-up. Furthermore, it is multimodal in nature. This means that it can work with and understand different types of information such as images, audio, text, code and video, all at the same time.
The AI model will be available in three different sizes: Ultra (for highly complex tasks), Pro (for scaling across a wide range of tasks) and Nano (on-device tasks).
“These are the first models of the Gemini era and the first realisation of the vision we had when we formed Google DeepMind earlier this year. This new era of models represents one of the biggest science and engineering efforts we’ve undertaken as a company,” said Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.
Gemini Ultra is currently being made available to select customers, partners, developers and safety and responsibility experts for early experimentation and feedback. A broader rollout to developers and enterprise customers will happen some time early next year.
Google will also be using Gemini across all its products. Starting December 6, Bard will use a fine-tuned version of Gemini Pro for more advanced reasoning, planning and understanding.
Gemini Nano will be powering new features on Pixel 8 Pro smartphones like ‘Summarise’ in the Recorder app and will soon be available in Smart Reply in Gboard, starting with WhatsApp. More messaging apps will incorporate it starting next year.
Gemini is also being used to make Google’s generative AI search offering Search Generative Experience (SGE) faster for users. The company said that they witnessed a 40 percent reduction in latency in English in the United States, alongside improvements in quality.
Hassabis said that Gemini will be integrated into more of the company’s products and services, including Search, Ads, Chrome, and Duet AI in the coming months, reported Moneycontrol.