Google Gemini, a new multimodal general AI model, which the tech giant calls its most powerful yet, is now available to users around the world through Bard, some developer platforms, and even the new Google Pixel 8 Pro phones.
The flexible AI model, which comes in three sizes — Ultra (which is yet to be launched), Pro, and Nano — is being seen as Google’s answer to ChatGPT, which has been ahead of the game so far when it comes to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).
So what is Google Gemini?
Demis Hassabis, CEO and co-founder of the AI research lab Google DeepMind, said Gemini gets close to the vision of “AI that feels less like a smart piece of software and more like something useful and intuitive — an expert helper or assistant”.
Gemini has been built from scratch as a collaborative effort by teams across Google. It is also multimodal, which means it can work, understand, and operate across text, code, audio, image, and video. By contrast, ChatGPT cannot work on video at the moment, at least not natively. It is also much more powerful than existing models. Google claims Gemini Ultra’s performance “exceeds current state-of-the-art results on 30 of the 32 widely-used academic benchmarks” used in large language model (LLM) research and development.
Gemini Ultra is the first model to outperform human experts on massive multitask language understanding (MMLU), which uses a combination of 57 subjects such as math, physics, history, law, medicine, and ethics for testing both world knowledge and problem-solving abilities, Google said. Also, Gemini can “understand, explain and generate high-quality code in the world’s most popular programming languages, like Python, Java, C++ and Go”.
Why does Gemini come in three sizes?
They will cater to different needs. Gemini Ultra, the largest and most capable model, will be for highly complex tasks. Since this model is still completing trust and safety checks, it is available only to select customers, developers, partners, and safety and responsibility experts for early experimentation and feedback. It will be rolled out to developers and enterprise customers early next year.
Gemini Pro will be best at scaling across a wide range of tasks and is now available in Bard for regular users across the world. On Bard, it has a “specifically tuned version of Gemini Pro in English for more advanced reasoning, planning, understanding and more”. Developers and enterprise customers will be able to access Gemini Pro via the Gemini API in Google AI Studio or Google Cloud Vertex AI.
Gemini Nano will manage on-device tasks, and is already available on Pixel 8 Pro, powering new features like Summarise in the Recorder app and Smart Reply via Gboard, starting with WhatsApp.
Will Gemini also impact Google search?
Google says Gemini will be rolled out for more products and services like Search, Ads, Chrome and Duet AI. It is already starting to experiment with Gemini in Search, “where it’s making Search Generative Experience (SGE) faster for users, with a 40% reduction in latency in English in the US, alongside improvements in quality”.
How does Gemini address issues of hallucination and safety?
Eli Collins, VP, Product, Google DeepMind, told The Indian Express that while they have done a lot of work on improving factuality in Gemini, the LLM can still hallucinate. “When we integrate these models with products like Bard, we have additional techniques to improve the accuracy of responses.”
On safety, Google said it is adding “new protections to account for Gemini’s multimodal capabilities”, and is considering potential risks and working to test and mitigate them at each stage of development. The company claims it has the “most comprehensive safety evaluations of any Google AI model to date, including for bias and toxicity”. It is also working with a diverse group of external experts and partners to stress-test models across a range of issues.
So is Gemini better than ChatGPT 4?
At the moment it is hard to say, but Gemini does seem to be more flexible. Its ability to work with video, and on devices without Internet give it an edge. Another factor is that Gemini is now free to use, while ChatGPT4 is only for paying users.
Ananya Das is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. Based on a keen understanding of digital culture, Sophie navigates the ever-evolving landscape of trending topics. With an insightful and engaging approach, she explores what’s buzzing across social media platforms, ensuring readers stay in the loop with the most talked-about and shareable content online.
