On Thursday, Google renamed its ‘Bard’ chatbot to ‘Gemini’, showcasing the new artificial intelligence behind it. Google now offers consumers the option to pay for enhanced reasoning capabilities as it competes with Microsoft to secure subscriptions.
Customers in the United States can opt for a $19.99 monthly subscription to avail themselves of Gemini Advanced, offering an upgraded Ultra 1.0 AI model, according to the Alphabet subsidiary.
Subscribers will be granted two terabytes of cloud storage, usually priced at $9.99 per month, and will soon enjoy Gemini integration in Gmail and Google’s productivity suite.
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This package, labeled as the Google One AI Premium plan, signifies one of the company’s substantial responses to Microsoft and its collaborator OpenAI. It reflects the increasing competition for consumers who now have multiple paid AI subscription alternatives.
A year ago, OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus led the market by introducing the concept of purchasing early access to AI models and additional features. Microsoft has recently unveiled a rival subscription for AI, covering programs like Word and Excel, with both subscriptions priced at $20 per month in the United States.
In an interview, Product Lead Jack Krawczyk mentioned that the integration of cloud storage, Gmail, and other features would align Google’s subscription with the way people work.
“When I pay $20 a month, access to a model alone is not really enough,” he said.
Krawczyk stated that the intended audience comprises individuals seeking the most advanced generative AI technology capable of generating new content on demand and addressing queries without readily available online answers.
Google, aiming for another product with a vast user base, intends to leverage its extensive Android phone customer base. The company announced that Android users can choose Gemini as their default digital assistant on their phones, accessing it through an app, the power button, or by using the voice command “Hey Google.”
“When you do that, it presents one of the lowest friction ways in the world to access AI,” Krawczyk said. Gemini is coming to the Google iPhone app as well, he added.
As of Thursday, Gemini Advanced is accessible in English across 150 countries, according to Krawczyk.
The smartphone rollout of Gemini, beginning in the U.S., will extend globally next week to Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and other regions, with added language support in Japanese and Korean, according to Krawczyk. Users can avail a two-month subscription trial for free.
Regarding the name change, Krawczyk explained that Google’s AI approach has evolved, transitioning from “the artist formerly known as Bard” to the “Gemini era.”
Source: – Reuters