Alphabet-C Bard officially changes its name! Also announces the launch of "the most powerful model ever" Ultra 1.0

In 2024, the AI arms race is heating up, and tech giants are engaging in fierce competition to capitalize on this ambitious new technology.

On February 8th, Alphabet-C announced that its AI chatbot, Bard, will be officially renamed Gemini. At the same time, they announced the launch of a new subscription plan that allows users to access their "most powerful model," Gemini Ultra 1.0, directly competing with OpenAI's GPT-4.

After the upgrade, the lower-parameter versions of Bard will continue to be available for free to users. However, users willing to pay $19.99 per month can access the most powerful version of Alphabet-C's Gemini. Android users can download a new dedicated Android application to use Gemini, while iPhone users can use Gemini within the Alphabet-C app on iOS. The cost of accessing Gemini through Alphabet-C One (the company's paid storage service) is $19.99 per month, and existing Alphabet-C One subscribers are offered a two-month free trial.

This upgrade can be seen as a pure "brand reshaping," as the model itself has not changed. Since December last year, the large model behind Bard has already been iterated as Gemini. This renaming may be because Alphabet-C believes that the product should be consistent with the name of the large model.

The highlight is the release of Gemini Advanced by Alphabet-C at the same time. Alphabet-C refers to it as Gemini Advanced Ultra 1.0 in their product release blog.

Alphabet-C claims that this is their largest and most powerful AI model to date. In blind tests conducted by third-party evaluators, Gemini Advanced equipped with Ultra 1.0 is the most popular AI chatbot compared to other major chatbots. Sissie Hsiao, Vice President of Alphabet-C and General Manager of Alphabet-C Assistant and Bard, stated that the changes to Gemini are the "first step in building a true AI assistant."

Gemini Ultra 1.0 is a model that establishes the most advanced AI standards in various fields such as text, images, audio, and video. For Alphabet-C, Gemini is not just a model; it represents a transformation in our thinking about cutting-edge technology and the entire ecosystem we have built upon it, whether it's products that impact billions of users or APIs and platforms for developers and businesses to innovate. She said that Ultra 1.0 makes Gemini more capable in highly complex tasks such as coding, logical reasoning, following subtle instructions, and collaborative creative projects. By subscribing to the premium version, not only can users engage in longer and more detailed conversations, but they can also remember context.

Alphabet-C gave examples of Gemini Advanced:

Gemini Advanced can be your personal teacher - creating step-by-step guidance, example quizzes, or back-and-forth discussions based on your learning style.

It can help you tackle more advanced coding scenarios, provide a sounding board for your ideas, and assist in evaluating different coding methods.

It can help digital creators go from ideation to creation by generating new content, analyzing the latest trends, and brainstorming ways to improve audience growth.

Alphabet-C also mentioned that Gemini Advanced is continuously improving and will introduce additional multimodal features, more interactive coding capabilities, and deeper data analysis functions in the future.

Subscribers of Alphabet-C One who pay for AI subscriptions will also be able to use Gemini's assistant features in Google Workspace platforms such as Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Meet. The previous AI assistant in Google Workspace, Duet AI, has been discontinued, and the new AI assistant will be collectively referred to as Gemini for Workspace. The Duet AI used in Alphabet-C's cloud will also be renamed as Gemini for Google Cloud.

Alphabet-C aims to incorporate more context from users' content in Gmail, Docs, and Drive into Gemini. For example, when replying to a long email thread, suggested replies will take into account the context of earlier messages in the thread and potentially relevant files in Google Drive.

As for the reason behind the name change of the AI products, Sissie Hsiao explained that it is to help users understand that they are directly interacting with AI models that support chatbots.

Bard is the way we converse with our cutting-edge models, and Gemini is our cutting-edge model.

Ultimately, AI agents may be able to schedule group gatherings by scanning everyone's calendars to ensure no time conflicts, make travel and activity reservations, purchase gifts for loved ones, or perform specific job functions such as prospecting clients. However, currently these tools, including Gemini, are primarily limited to task execution such as summarizing, generating to-do lists, or assisting in coding. Currently, Gemini Advanced offers English versions in more than 150 countries and regions, and will support more languages in the future. Media predicts that Japanese and Korean versions will be launched soon.

The company is also launching a new Gemini app for Android and bringing it to Google apps on iOS. On Android, you can now replace your Google Assistant with Gemini. As for developers who want to access the Ultra Model API, Alphabet-C has stated that they will share more information in the coming weeks.

When Alphabet-C first announced Gemini, it only offered the Gemini Pro model extensively through Bard. Alphabet-C stated at the time that the performance of Gemini Pro is roughly equivalent to GPT-3.5, but with the widespread availability of GPT-4, the performance of Gemini Pro seems somewhat lackluster. Alphabet-C's parent company, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, emphasized the company's commitment to AI during the company's January 30th earnings conference call. Pichai stated that he ultimately hopes to provide an AI that can complete more and more tasks on behalf of users, including within Alphabet-C search, although he said "there is still a lot of work to be done."

Alphabet-C's Class A shares rose 0.3% to $145.98 in midday trading on Thursday. The stock has risen 5.65% year-to-date.