Google just made its most capable generative AI — Gemini Ultra — available to the public, across a host of its apps, while simultaneously killing off the “Bard” brand.
Gemini Ultra: In December 2023, Google unveiled Gemini, an AI it claimed was its “largest and most capable” to date. It also announced three “sizes” of Gemini — Ultra, Pro, and Nano — each optimized for different use cases.
“It’s an important first step in building a true AI assistant.”
Sissie Hsiao
Gemini Ultra is the most powerful version. It outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-4 on 30 of 32 benchmarks tested and beat human experts on MMLU (massive multitask language understanding), an assessment of knowledge and problem-solving abilities based on a combination of 57 subjects, ranging from math to ethics.
That powerful AI was kept on the shelf, out of reach of most people, though — at the time, Google said it planned to conduct “extensive trust and safety checks” of Gemini Ultra and would only be sharing it with select customers and partners.
Google Advanced: Google is finally making Gemini Ultra widely available through a chatbot called Gemini Advanced, included in the new Google One AI Premium subscription. The plan costs $20 per month after a free two-month trial, and Google says it will soon include access to Gemini Advanced in Google Docs, Gmail, and more.
“Gemini Advanced is far more capable at highly complex tasks with a range of applications like coding, logical reasoning, following nuanced instructions and creative collaboration, amongst many others,” Sissie Hsiao, Google’s VP of Gemini Experiences, said in a press conference.
Bye bye Bard: Gemini Advanced wasn’t Google’s only big announcement — it also shared that it was rebranding its Bard chatbot as simply “Gemini.”
“Our mission with Bard has always been to give you direct access to our AI models, and Gemini represents our most capable family of models,” wrote Hsiao. “To reflect this, Bard will now simply be known as Gemini.”
Google also released a new Gemini mobile app on Android and said it would be rolling out access to Gemini through the Google iOS app “within the coming weeks.” Paying for Google Advanced will get you access to Gemini Ultra in the apps.
“With Gemini on your phone, you can type, talk, or add an image for all kinds of help while you’re on the go … It’s an important first step in building a true AI assistant — one that is conversational, multimodal, and helpful,” wrote Hsiao.
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