Bard is dead, long live Gemini: Google's new name for its AI chat? – Interesting Engineering
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Google's AI chatbot Bard is about to get a major makeover. The company is reportedly ditching the Bard name and rebranding it as Gemini, after the powerful AI model that powers it. And that's not all — Gemini will launch a new Android app and a premium subscription service next week. Gemini is making a greater push into smartphones with Google's Pixel 8 series and Samsung's S24 series.
Bard, which debuted in 2022, is Google's attempt to create a generative AI chat experience that can do anything from writing poems and stories to generating images and code. The chatbot has been constantly evolving, adding new features and capabilities. Last year, Google upgraded Bard with Gemini, a multimodal AI model that can handle text, images, audio, and video. Last month, Bard added an image generator to create realistic pictures from text descriptions.
But Google has been secretly working on a bigger change for Bard. As we revealed earlier this week, Google plans to rebrand Bard as Gemini, aligning it with the AI model that runs it. Thanks to a leaked changelog spotted by Android developer Dylan Roussel, we know that the change is coming as soon as next week.
The February 7 changelog confirms that "Bard is now Gemini" and explains Google's reasoning behind the move. According to Google, the rebranding is meant to reflect the fact that "Gemini Pro" now powers Bard in all countries and languages where it is available. Gemini Pro is the advanced version of Gemini, which offers more features and capabilities than the standard model.
Roussel also shared a screenshot of the changelog on Twitter, showing some other changes coming to Gemini. One of them is the launch of a Gemini app for Android, which is "coming soon." Another is the availability of Gemini Advanced, a paid subscription service that will give users access to Gemini Ultra, the most powerful and sophisticated version of Gemini.
Google added a new changelog for Bard, and — oh boy — it's a big one!
The availability in Canada is awesome! That said, I need help understanding the limitations of the app. That's disappointing as someone who lives in Europe.
Google added a new changelog for Bard, and — oh boy — it's a big one!
The availability in Canada is awesome! That said I don't really understand the limitations with the app. That's disappointing as someone who lives in Europe.
Oh by the way… https://t.co/xM2snHVYJ9 is real. pic.twitter.com/QKgKrRjmM4
According to the changelog, Gemini Ultra is "far more capable at highly complex tasks like coding, logical reasoning, following nuanced instructions, and creative collaboration." It will be available in over 150 countries and optimized for English at launch. The changelog also says that Gemini Advanced will offer more features such as "expanded multimodal capabilities," better coding support, and "the ability to upload and more deeply analyze files, documents, data, and more." But there's a caveat, it is most likely going to be a paid subscription model like GPT4.
