Google has announced that its AI chatbot Bard, which allows users to interact with various AI models and generate creative content, is rebranding as Gemini. The new name reflects the company’s most advanced family of AI models, which were previously known as Gemini Nano, Gemini Pro, and Gemini Ultra. Along with the name change, Google is also launching a new mobile app and a subscription plan for Gemini.

Sissie Hsiao, VP and General manager of Google Gemini Experiences said, since we launched Bard last year, people all over the world have used it to collaborate with AI in a completely new way — to prepare for job interviews, debug code, brainstorm new business ideas or, as we announced last week, create captivating images. Our mission with Bard has always been to give you direct access to our AI models, and Gemini represents our most capable family of models. To reflect this, Bard will now simply be known as Gemini.

Gemini is a chat mode of Google that lets users collaborate with AI in a conversational way. Users can ask Gemini to help them with tasks such as writing, coding, learning, brainstorming, or creating images. Gemini can also engage in casual chat, trivia, games, and jokes. Gemini uses different AI models to provide different levels of capabilities and features.

The Gemini app, which is available for Android and will soon come to iOS, allows users to access Gemini from their smartphones. The app has a simple and intuitive interface, where users can type or speak their prompts and see Gemini’s responses. The app also supports voice input and output, as well as text-to-speech and speech-to-text features. Users can also switch between different languages and models within the app.

The subscription plan, which is part of the Google One AI Premium Plan, gives users access to Gemini Advanced, which uses the Ultra 1.0 model. This is the largest and most capable AI model that Google has developed, and it can handle more complex and nuanced tasks than the Pro 1.0 model, which is available for free. Gemini Advanced can also understand the context from previous prompts better and have longer and more detailed conversations. The subscription plan costs $19.99 per month and also includes 2TB of storage and other benefits from Google One.

Google said that the rebranding and the new offerings are part of its mission to give users direct access to its AI models and to showcase its latest advancements in AI. The company also said that it will continue to improve Gemini and add new and exclusive features to Gemini Advanced, such as multimodal capabilities, interactive coding features, deeper data analysis capabilities, and more.

Gemini is available in over 40 languages and more than 230 countries and territories. Users can try Gemini for free on the web or download the app from the Google Play Store. Users can also sign up for a two-month trial of Gemini Advanced at no cost.

Bard in India, no more waitlists! As part of Google’s announcement, made during the Google I/O 2023 event, that there wont be any more waitlist process and will now be available across 180 countries!

As India begins playing around with Bard, lets try to understand everything about it!

What is Bard

Bard is a large language model, also known as a conversational AI or chatbot trained to be informative and comprehensive. It is trained on a massive amount of text data, and is able to communicate and generate human-like text in response to a wide range of prompts and questions. For example, it can provide summaries of factual topics or create stories.

As a creative and helpful collaborator, Bard can supercharge your imagination, boost your productivity, and help you bring your ideas to life—whether you want help planning the perfect birthday party and drafting the invitation, creating a pro & con list for a big decision, or understanding really complex topics simply.

How is Bard different from ChatGPT?

Bard and ChatGPT are both large language models, but they have some key differences.

Data source: Bard is trained on an “infiniset” of data chosen to enhance its dialogue and has access to the internet in real time, whereas ChatGPT is trained on a pre-defined set of data that hasn’t been updated since 2021.
Accuracy: Bard uses LaMDA for dialogue applications, while ChatGPT uses GPT-3.5. LaMDA was built on an open source network to understand natural language. It’s trained to find patterns in sentences and between words to create dialogue versus individual words.
Creativity: Bard is more creative than ChatGPT, and it can generate more original text formats, like poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, email, letters, etc.

Overall, Bard creates more chunks of information, while ChatGPT creates content in a single text prompt.

What is the difference between Conversational AI and Generative AI?

Conversational AI is the Artificial intelligence (AI) that can engage in conversation and refers to tools that allow users to communicate with virtual assistants or chatbots. They mimic human interactions by identifying speech and text inputs and translating their contents into other languages using massive amounts of data, machine learning, and natural language processing. While Generative AI often uses deep learning techniques, like generative adversarial networks (GANs), to identify patterns and features in a given dataset before creating new data from the input data.

Can the responses of AI be trusted?

Any AI is built upon the data fed to it during its training, so any response from any AI bot should be taken with a pinch of salt and must be cross-checked. Since the AI industry is still developing, its too early to write a comparison between which AI technology is better or more accurate and which is not.

Accelerating people’s ideas with generative AI is truly exciting, but it’s still early days, and Bard is an experiment. While Bard has built-in safety controls and clear mechanisms for feedback in line with our AI Principles, be aware that it may display inaccurate information or offensive statements.

Can Bard help with coding?

Yes, Bard can help with coding and topics about coding, but Bard is still experimental and you are responsible for your use of code or coding explanations. So you should use discretion and carefully test and review all code for errors, bugs, and vulnerabilities before relying on it. Code may also be subject to an open source license and Bard provides related information.

How to access Bard?

Visit Google’s Bard site, read and agree to some terms and conditions and you are then free to use it!

Google IO 2023 started with CEO Sundar Pichai’s keynote. The key announcements include Google Pixel Fold, Pixel Tablet, Pixel 7a, Android 14 and lots and lots of AI announcements. You can watch the complete keynote here…

Google Search

Undoubtedly Google’s most successful product, search is at the very core of Google’s mission. Google Search will be getting 2 new features.

Bringing Google’s generative AI Bard to its search platform, Generative AI capabilities in Search will help you when deciding what to buy. It taps into Google’s Shopping Graph, the world’s most comprehensive dataset of constantly-changing products, sellers, brands, reviews and inventory.

With the new generative AI experience in Search, you’ll get even more from a single search. You’ll be able to quickly make sense of information with an AI-powered snapshot, pointers to explore more and natural ways to ask.

What’s new from Android

Large-screen Android devices will be better than ever with more than 50 Google apps have been optimized for large screens, including Gmail, Photos and Meet. And your favorite apps like Spotify, Minecraft and Disney+ look beautiful and feel intuitive on larger screens.

With the foldables becoming the driving force to revive the tablets market, Google has been focusing on improving the Android experience on tablets.

The next screen real estate getting popularity is the smart watch market. Wear OS has grown over five times since the launch of Wear OS 3 in 2021, and it is the fastest-growing smartwatch platform in the world. Developers are investing in the platform as well. Soon, WhatsApp is bringing their first-ever smartwatch app to Wear OS, and more great experiences are coming this year from Gmail, Calendar and more.

Bringing the power of generative AI to Android, soon, you’ll be able to give your compose-itions an extra spark of personality. Magic Compose, a new Messages feature powered by generative AI, will help you transform your text message to your desired vibe before you hit send.

Pixel 7a

Pixel 7a, the next generation Pixel phones, is powered by Google’s Tensor G2 chip, 8GB RAM, 6.1 inch screen, a much larger camera sensor and will be going on sale today at the Google Store for $499. As a launch offer, Google is giving away their PixelBuds A-Series free of cost for a limited time!

Pixel Tablet

Large screens still have a lot of potential. PixelTablet is built to deliver uniquely helpful experiences—11 inch display, AI powered Google Tensor G2 chip, amazing battery life and a completely reimagined docking stand!

When the Pixel Tablet is in the docked or as Google calls it, in the hub mode, it turns into a digital photo frame and a voice assisted smart home controller.

Pixel Fold

One of the big announcements, unveiling the foldable Pixel phone. It’s also quite thin while folded, at 12.1 millimeters, the hinge is a big part of that. This is 180-degree fluid friction hinge, which means that you can put it to any place you want.

PixelFold is the thinnest foldable on the market. Comes with and expansive 7.6-inch immersive display and a 5.8-inch front display.

The device houses a three-camera system: a 48-megapixel main, 10.8-megapixel ultrawide and a 10.8-megapixel telephoto with 5x optical Zoom and 20x Super Res Zoom. The front-facing camera, meanwhile, is 9.5 megapixels. Is a IPX8 water-resistant design.

The real secret sauce in the Pixel Fold experience is, unsurprisingly, the software. The app continuity when switching between the external and internal screens is quite seamless, allowing you to pick where you left off as you change screen sizes. Naturally, Google has optimized its most popular third-party apps for the big screen experience, including Gmail and YouTube.

The system is powered by the same Tensor G2 chip you’ll find in the Pixel 7, 7a and Pixel tablet.

Starting at $1799, this ultra-premium device combines personal AI, Google Tensor G2, and innovation for a Pixel smartphone that unfolds into an incredible compact tablet. Google is giving away free Pixel Watch for limited time pre-orders!

Find my device, even when offline

Currently, Find My Device helps you locate misplaced devices that have location capabilities and are connected to the internet. However, Google will be launching a refreshed Find My Device experience that makes it easier than ever to locate your devices and belongings quickly and securely by ringing compatible devices or viewing their location on a map in the app – even when they’re offline.

The new Find My Device network will harness over a billion Android devices across the world to help you locate your missing belongings like headphones, tracker tags, or even your phone via Bluetooth proximity.

RCS adoption

When you are texting in a group chat, you shouldn’t have to worry about what kind of phone everyone is using – sharing high-quality images and video, seeing typing notifications and staying protected with end-to-end encryption should just work. Out with the old (SMS & MMS) and in with the new. RCS is a modern standard that provides end-to-end encryption and supports high quality videos and photos in texts. There are now over 800 million people with RCS, on the way to 1 billion by the end of the year.

Bard – Conversational AI from Google

Bard lets you collaborate with generative AI. Google is not only removing its waitlist for Bard and making it available, in English, in over 180 countries and territories, but it’s also launching support for Japanese and Korean with a goal of supporting 40 languages in the near future.

As a creative and helpful collaborator, Bard can supercharge your imagination, boost your productivity, and help you bring your ideas to life—whether you want help planning the perfect birthday party and drafting the invitation, creating a pro & con list for a big decision, or understanding really complex topics simply.

Bard will soon become more visual in a couple of helpful ways. Bard will incorporate relevant images in its responses. It’ll also become easy for you to prompt Bard with images, giving you even more ways to explore and create.

Google Maps

Google Maps unveiled a new “Immersive View for Routes” feature in select cities. The new feature brings all of the information that a user may need into one place, including details about traffic simulations, bike lanes, complex intersections, parking and more. You can even see air quality, weather and traffic.

PaLM 2

PaLM – Pathways Language Model from Google, a 540-billion parameter, dense decoder-only Transformer model trained with the Pathways system. PaLM 2 will power Google’s updated Bard chat tool, the company’s competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and function as the foundation model for most of the new AI features the company is announcing today.

Sec-PaLM, introduced last month, is trained on security intelligence and powers new Google Cloud offerings that help organizations and security analysts detect, understand and defend against threats.

Med-PaLM 2 can help answer questions and summarize insights from a variety of dense medical texts.

Workspace

From the very beginning, Google Workspace was built for collaborating in real time with other people — and now you can also collaborate in real time with AI!

These new Workspace features can help you turn ideas into action. Simply describe what you’re trying to accomplish, and Google Sheets will generate a plan that helps you get organized.

New AI tools in can help you level up your Slides presentations. Simply pick a slide and use a simple text prompt to generate an original visual that conveys your unique artistic vision.

All of these new features are part of a powerful new way of working that Google is calling Duet AI for Google Workspace.

Google I/O 2023 is scheduled to be held on the 10th of May, 2023 with a lot of expectations and rumors surrounding it including the partly confirmed launch of Pixel Fold!

Google I/O 2023 will take place on Wednesday, May 10. That’s in line with when Google normally holds its developers conference — last year’s edition took place on May 11 and May 12, for example.

Google Keynote gets started at 10am PT. There will be an in-person event at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., a venue that’s just down the street from Google headquarters. Most people will attend virtually, though since Google streams its developer conference.

While the Google I/O 2023 agenda includes most all the products that Google develops, supports or sponsors, the most demanded ones would surely be Google Bard, Android 14 and the launch of Pixel Fold.

Google Bard

We’re expecting more AI announcements from Google with a formal introduction to Bard – it’s CharGPT rival. Artificial intelligence has been a hot tech topic in 2023, particularly, generative AI, which can generate new data like text, art, and music. Google isn’t sitting idly by as other companies grab all the headlines and buzz. Last month, Google launched Bard, its ChatGPT and Bing chat rival that can generate structured text responses to queries. And at I/O, Google will surely have more to unveil when it comes to Bard and generative AI as a whole.

Android 14

Android 14 will focus on refinements and improved security. Based on the information provided in the developer previews and two Beta releases, Android 14 will offer optimized resource management, improved support for tablets and foldable devices and more accessibility features. We can also expect more personalization options that build on the Material You design.

Pixel Fold

Google’s first foray into the world of foldable phones is set to finally see its big moment with the announcement of the Pixel Fold. It could pack tech like a 7.69-inch inner display, a 5.79-inch outer display, and the Tensor G2 chipset under the hood.

And a lot more to expect from Google I/O 2023