Google has made Gemini the product and the model, as it says goodbye to Bard.
Google has renamed its Bard chatbot Gemini after the AI model powering it and offered users a new paid subscription for extra capabilities.
On Thursday (8 February), Google announced the Gemini Advanced subscription, giving users paid access to its Ultra 1.0 AI model, a stronger large language model (LLM) with better reasoning abilities.
Google claims that Gemini’s Ultra 1.0 AI model is “the most preferred chatbot compared to leading alternatives” with third-party rater evaluations.
“With our Ultra 1.0 model, Gemini Advanced is far more capable at highly complex tasks like coding, logical reasoning, following nuanced instructions and collaborating on creative projects,” Google wrote in a blog post.
“Gemini Advanced not only allows you to have longer, more detailed conversations; it also better understands the context from your previous prompts,” it added.
The move marks an increase in the competitive landscape of paid AI chatbots as companies look to make the technology profitable. In August 2023, OpenAI released the ChatGPT Enterprise subscription designed exclusively for businesses and corporate users.
Research company GlobalData noted that LLMs powering AI chatbots are currently expensive to produce and run.
“It is rumoured that OpenAI paid at least $100m to create GPT-4 – and finding the best enterprise use cases to monetise the technology is a priority in the industry,” the company wrote in its Generative AI Watch – In Focus: Large Language Models (LLMs) 2023 report.
