Google on Thursday announced a major rebranding of its artificial intelligence chatbot and assistant Bard, including a new app and subscription options. As OpenAI's main competitor to ChatGPT, Bard is now known as Gemini, the namesake of the AI model suite that powers the chatbot.
Google also announced new ways for consumers to use AI tools: as of Thursday, Android users can ** the new dedicated Android app Gemini, and iPhone users can use Gemini in Google apps on iOS.
Google's rebranding and app offerings underscore the company's commitment to pursuing — and investing heavily in — artificial intelligence assistants, or AI assistants, a term often used to describe tools ranging from chatbots to coding assistants and other productivity tools.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted the company's commitment to AI during its earnings call** session on January 30. Pichai said he ultimately hopes to provide an artificial intelligence that can complete more and more tasks on behalf of users, including in Google searches, though he says "there's still a lot of work to be done." Similarly, CEOs of tech giants from Microsoft to Amazon have emphasized their commitment to making artificial intelligence** a productivity tool.
Sissie Hsiao, Google's vice president and general manager of Google Assistant and Bard, told reporters in a tweet on Wednesday that Google's changes to Gemini were the first step in "building a true AI assistant."
Google also announced a new AI subscription option on Thursday for those who want to access Google's most powerful AI model, Gemini Ultra 10 for advanced users. Google's paid storage service, Google One, costs $19 per month$99. For existing Google One users, this** includes storage plans they may have already paid for. There's also a two-month free trial.
The product launched Thursday is available to users in more than 150 countries and territories, but is currently limited to English. Google plans to expand language services to include Japanese and Korean, among other languages.
Bard's name change also affects Duet AI, the old name for "packaged AI**" in Google Workspace and Google Cloud, which aims to boost productivity and complete simple tasks for client companies like Wayfair, GE, Spotify and Pfizer. The two tools are now known as Gemini for Workspace and Gemini of Google Cloud, respectively.
Google One executives told reporters on Wednesday that users who pay for AI subscriptions can also use Gemini's assistant features such as Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Meet. Google wants to integrate more of the user content from Gmail, Docs, and Drive into Gemini. For example, if you're replying to a very long email thread, the suggested reply ends up getting context from older messages in the thread and potentially related files in Google Drive.
As for the reason for the name change? Google's Xiao told reporters on Wednesday that this is to help users understand that they are interacting directly with the artificial intelligence model that underpins the chatbot.
Bard (is) the way to talk to our cutting-edge models, and Gemini is our cutting-edge models. Xiao Qianqian said.
Eventually, AI** may schedule group gatherings by scanning everyone's calendars to ensure there are no conflicts, book trips and activities, buy gifts for loved ones, or perform specific work functions like outbound travel sales. However, at the moment, these tools, including Gemini, are mainly limited to tasks such as summarizing, generating a backlog, or helping with writing.
Speaking about Google Assistant and search during the Jan. 30 earnings call** session, Pichai said: "We're going to be there again with generative AI, especially on our state-of-the-art models and bard." Over time, this makes us behave more like a **, and if I think about the future, maybe go beyond the answer and follow up more for the user.