In an attempt to take down OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google claims its new AI Gemini can think better than its existing competitors.
Google announced its next step in things on Wednesday artificial intelligence (AI) and presented the Gemini project. This is an AI model trained to behave similarly to a human and is likely to intensify the debate about the potential opportunities and dangers of this technology.
The rollout will be gradual, with less sophisticated versions of Gemini called “Nano” and “Pro” being immediately integrated into Google’s AI-powered chatbot Bard and its Pixel 8 Pro smartphone.
Google promises that with Gemini support, Bard will become more intuitive and better at planning tasks.
On the Pixel 8 Pro, Gemini will be able to quickly summarize shots taken on the device and provide automatic replies to messaging services starting with WhatsApp, Google said.
Gemini won’t make its biggest strides until early next year, when its Ultra model will be used to launch “Bard Advanced,” a beefed-up version of the chatbot that will initially only be offered to a test audience.
Artificial intelligence behaves like a human
The AI will initially only work in English worldwide, although Google executives assured reporters during a briefing that the technology will have no problem diversifying into other languages at some point.
Based on a demonstration of Gemini for a group of reporters, Google’s “Bard Advanced” could be capable of unprecedented AI multitasking by simultaneously recognizing and understanding presentations containing text, photos and videos.
Gemini will also be used in Google’s dominant search engine, although the timing of this transition has not yet been determined.
A new era” for Google
“This is a significant milestone in the evolution of AI and the beginning of a new era for us at Google,” said Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, the AI division behind Gemini.
Google beat out other bidders, including Facebook parent Meta, to acquire London-based DeepMind nearly a decade ago and has since merged it with its “Brain” division to focus on developing Gemini to concentrate.
The technology’s problem-solving abilities are touted by Google as being particularly adept at math and physics, fueling hopes among AI optimists that it could lead to scientific breakthroughs that improve people’s lives.
However, the other side of the AI debate fears that the technology could eventually eclipse human intelligence, leading to the loss of millions of jobs and perhaps even more destructive behavior, such as: B. the spread of misinformation or the use of nuclear weapons.
“We are approaching this work boldly and responsibly,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post.
“This means we are ambitious in our research and pursuing the capabilities that will bring enormous benefits to people and society, while building in safeguards and working with governments and experts to address risks as AI becomes more powerful.
The arrival of Gemini is likely Competition for AIwhich has been escalating for a year between the San Francisco startup OpenAI and long-time industry rival Microsoft, will continue to heat up.
OpenAI, backed by Microsoft’s financial muscle and computing power, was already deep into development of its most advanced AI model, GPT-4, when it released the free ChatGPT tool late last year.
This AI-powered chatbot gained worldwide fame, drawing attention to the commercial possibilities of generative AI and pressuring Google to release Bard in response.
ADVERTISINGRiding the wave of generative AI
Just as Bard came onto the scene, OpenAI released GPT-4 in March and has since developed new features for consumers and business customers, including a feature introduced in November that allows the chatbot to analyze images.
The company competes with other rival AI startups like Anthropic and even its partner Microsoft, which has exclusive rights to OpenAI’s technology in return for the billions of dollars it has poured into the startup.
The alliance has so far been a boon for Microsoft, whose market value has risen more than 50 percent this year, largely because investors believe AI will emerge as a goldmine for the tech industry.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is also riding the same wave:
Their market value has increased by more than $500 billion (€460 billion) or around 45 percent so far this year. Despite the anticipation for Gemini over the past few months, shares of Alphabet fell slightly in trading on Wednesday.
ADVERTISINGMicrosoft’s increasing involvement in OpenAI over the past year and OpenAI’s more aggressive attempts to market its products have raised suspicions that the nonprofit has drifted away from its original mission of protecting humanity as technology advances.
Those fears were heightened last month when OpenAI’s board abruptly fired CEO Sam Altman in a dispute that centered on unspecified trust issues. After a backlash that threatened to destroy the company and led to a mass exodus of AI talent to Microsoft, OpenAI brought Altman back as CEO and changed its board.
With the release of Gemini, OpenAI will try to prove that its technology is smarter than Google’s.
“I’m impressed with what it can do,” Eli Collins, vice president of product at Google DeepMind, said of Gemini.
In a virtual press conference, Google declined to reveal Gemini’s number of parameters – one, but not the only, measure of a model’s complexity.
ADVERTISINGA white paper published Wednesday describes that the most powerful version of Gemini outperforms GPT-4 on multiple-choice tests, elementary school math and other benchmarks, but admits that it remains difficult to get AI models to perform higher to achieve thinking skills.
Some computer scientists see the limits of what is possible with large language models that work by repeatedly predicting the next word in a sentence and are prone to errors known as hallucinations.
“We’ve made great strides in what we call facticity with Gemini. So Gemini is our best model in this regard. But I would say it’s still an unsolved research problem,” Collins said.