thursday google The company has renamed its Bard chatbot after the new artificial intelligence “Gemini” that powers it, and as it battles with Microsoft for subscriptions, consumers can expect better reasoning capabilities. He said he could pay.
The Alphabet subsidiary says U.S. customers can subscribe for $19.99 per month to access Gemini Advanced, which includes the more powerful Ultra 1.0 AI model.
Subscribers receive 2TB of cloud storage, typically $9.99 per month, and immediately gain access to Gemini in Gmail and Google's productivity suite.
The bundle, known as the Google One AI Premium Plan, represents one of the company's biggest responses to Microsoft and its partner OpenAI to date. It also shows that competition for consumers is increasing, and consumers now have several paid AI subscription options.
OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus opened up a market a year ago to buy early access to AI models and other features, and Microsoft recently announced competing subscriptions for AI in programs like Word and Excel. Both subscriptions cost $20 per month in the US.
Cloud storage, Gmail and other integrations will bring Google's subscriptions in line with the way people work, Product Director Jack Krachik said in an interview. “When you pay $20 a month, it’s not really enough just to have access to the model,” he said.
target market
Krawczyk said the target market is people who want the most capable generative AI technology that can generate new content on command and handle queries for which there are no obvious answers online.
Google expects new products with billions of users and will use its large base of Android phone customers to its advantage. The company says Android users can access Gemini through the app, the power button, or by saying “Hey Google,” and opt-in to make it the default digital assistant on their phones.
“Doing so provides one of the world's lowest-friction ways to access AI,” Krawczyk said. He added that Gemini will also appear in his Google iPhone app.
Read: Microsoft boosts AI capabilities
Gemini Advanced is available in English in 150 countries as of Thursday, Krawczyk said. This includes South Africa.
He said Gemini's smartphone rollout will begin in the United States and expand internationally next week to Asia Pacific, Latin America and other regions, with additional language support for Japanese and Korean. Users can avail his 2-month subscription trial free of charge.
Regarding the name change, Krawczyk said Google's AI approach has matured and welcomed “artists once known as troubadours” into the “Gemini era.”
Google's move raises the bar for competition for AI supremacy, particularly against Microsoft-backed ChatGPT. ChatGPT's 4th generation model is driving the continued popularity of the OpenAI platform.
Read: Google opens up access to Gemini in race to beat OpenAI
Google recently announced that it has upgraded Bard (now Gemini) to provide advanced image generation capabilities in new regions, including South Africa. “Simply enter your description and Bard will generate custom photorealistic visuals to match your vision,” the company said last month. — Jeffrey Dastin, (c) 2024 Reuters, Additional reporting by Nkosinathi Ndlovu, (c) 2024 NewsCentral Media