Google changed the name of its chatbot with artificial intelligence (AI) from Bard to Gemini, announced that starting this Thursday this technology will be available in a new Gemini application for Android and through the Google application on iOS and, in addition, launched a paid “advanced” version.
Shortly after the popularity of ChatGPT, from Open AI, Google launched its chatbot Bard and at the end of the year it announced its Gemini multimodal model.
Vice President and General Manager of Gemini Experiences and Google Assistant, Sissy Hsiaothey said in a press conference that, beyond the name change and logothe chatbot – which is powered by the Gemini Pro language model (LLM) and is available globally in 40 languages - is the same.
Google’s AI, an assistant in a free app
This Thursday Google also launched in USA the Gemini mobile app on Android devices 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, Gemini can also 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 and will soon be available in more countries and languages, including Spanish.
Gemini Advanced, the paid version of Gemini
Another Google launch in 150 countries is Gemini Advancedwhere 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 it will cost US$19.99 per month and also gives access to the Google One premium package and its 2 terabytes of Google storage
In addition, the company announced that it is working to “soon” have users of Google One AI Premium can use Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Meet.
With these announcements, Google tries to demonstrate that it continues in the fight to become the reference company in terms of chatbotsa fight in which other heavyweights such as OpenAI and Microsoft also participate, which also offers a subscription to use AI in its Microsoft 365 applications.