Bard becomes Gemini, as Google rebrands chatbot and launches monthly subscription for access to more powerful AI system.
Alphabet's Google has shaken up its artificial intelligence chatbot offering, as it seeks to take the fight to rival Microsoft.
In a blog post on Thursday, Sissie Hsiao, VP and General Manager of Google Assistant and Bard, announced that Bard is now known as Gemini.
She also revealed Google is rolling out a mobile app and Gemini Advanced with Ultra 1.0.
Google had launched its Bard Chatbot back in March 2023, following a rapid development process that had triggered by the overnight success of Microsoft-backed ChatGPT in late 2022.
Almost a year later, and Google has now decided to rebrand Bard and launch a number of additional options.
It should be remembered that Google had expanded its AI capabilities with the launch of the Gemini large language model in December 2023.
Deepmind's Gemini at the time was touted as Google's most capable and general model yet, with state-of-the-art performance across many leading benchmarks.
Gemini 1.0 had been optimised into three different sizes, namely Gemini Ultra; Gemini Pro; and Gemini Nano.
Now Google is rebranding its Bard chatbot as Gemini.
US customers can subscribe for $19.99 a month to access Gemini Advanced, which besides access to the more powerful Ultra 1.0 AI model, will also give subscribers 2 terabytes of cloud storage.
Subscribers will also soon gain access to Gemini in Gmail and Google's productivity suite.
She cited examples of Gemini Advanced being a person's personal tutor or helping with more advanced coding examples, or helping digital creators generate fresh content.
It should be noted that back in February 2023, OpenAI had offered ChatGPT Plus to allow people to buy early access to AI models and other features.
Since early 2023 Microsoft has been integrating a free version of ChatGPT across its product line, including the Bing search engine and the Edge browser.
Last month Redmond announced a subscription for AI in programs such as Word and Excel.
Both subscriptions cost $20 a month in the United States.
Google's Hsiao meanwhile also revealed that the search giant wants to provide an easier way to access the Gemini AI assistant on people's phones.
This Cyber News was published on www.silicon.co.uk. Publication date: Thu, 08 Feb 2024 16:43:03 +0000