Google’s Gemini, hailed by CEO Sundar Pichai as an exciting innovation, has been making waves since its announcement. This development, following the seismic impact of ChatGPT’s launch last November, prompted Google to take decisive action, investing substantially in catching up with the generative AI trend. This concerted effort led not only to the introduction of Google Bard but also to the unveiling of Google Gemini.
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“We are building our next generation of models with Gemini and I am extraordinarily excited at the innovation coming ahead. I expect it to be a golden age of innovation ahead and can’t wait to bring all the innovations to more people,” Pichai recently said at the APEC CEO Conference.
What exactly is Google Gemini?
Gemini represents a suite of large language models (LLMs) employing training methodologies akin to those used in AlphaGo, integrating reinforcement learning and tree search techniques. It holds the potential to challenge ChatGPT’s dominance as the premier generative AI solution globally.
It emerged mere months after Google amalgamated its Brain and DeepMind AI labs to establish a new research entity known as Google DeepMind. It also follows swiftly on the heels of Bard’s launch and the introduction of its advanced PaLM 2 LLM.
While expectations suggest a potential release of Google Gemini in the autumn of 2023, comprehensive details regarding its capabilities remain elusive.
In May, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, shared a blog post offering a broad overview of the LLM, stating: “Gemini was purpose-built from the ground up to be multimodal, boasting highly efficient tool and API integrations, and designed to facilitate future innovations such as memory and planning.”
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Pichai also highlighted, “Despite being in its early stages, we are already witnessing remarkable multimodal capabilities not previously seen in earlier models. Once fine-tuned and rigorously assessed for safety, Gemini will be available in various sizes and functionalities, akin to PaLM 2.”
Since then, official disclosures about its release have been scarce. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, in an interview with Wired, hinted at Gemini’s capabilities, mentioning its amalgamation of AlphaGo’s strengths with the impressive language capabilities of large models.
According to Android Police, an anonymous source associated with the product suggested that Gemini will generate text alongside contextual images, drawing on sources such as YouTube video transcripts.
Challenges on the horizon
Google’s extensive endeavour to catch up with OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, appears to be more challenging than initially anticipated, as reported by The Information.
Earlier this year, Google informed select cloud clients and business partners that they would gain access to the company’s new conversational AI, the substantial language model Gemini, by November.
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However, the company recently notified them to expect it in the first quarter of the following year, as revealed by two individuals with direct insight. This delay poses a significant challenge for Google, particularly amidst the slowdown in its cloud sales growth, contrasting with the accelerated growth of its larger rival, Microsoft. A portion of Microsoft’s success can be attributed to selling OpenAI’s technology to its customer base.
