Google’s AI Bard And Duet Become Gemini; $20 Per Month For Gemini Ultra

'Gemini is evolving to be more than just the models,’ says Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

Google’s AI chatbot Bard and AI-powered collaborator Duet AI are being rebranded under Google’s Gemini umbrella, with a new tiered subscription service starting at $20 per month.

The $307 billion Mountain View, Calif.-based tech giant is also releasing a new Gemini app on Android and on the Google app on iOS.

“Gemini is evolving to be more than just the models,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai in a blog post today. “It supports an entire ecosystem—from the products that billions of people use every day, to the APIs and platforms helping developers and businesses innovate.”

The new Gemini AI chatbot is available in various capacities—from a free version to the highest tiered Gemini Ultra 1.0 with a price of $20 per month.

Gemini Ultra is Google’s largest and most capable large language model (LLM), aiming to boost user performance in tasks such as logical reasoning, coding and collaboration.

“With out Ultra 1.0 model, Gemini Advanced is far more capable at highly complex tasks like coding, logical reasoning, following nuanced instructions and collaborating on creative projects,” said Sissie Hsiao, vice president and general manager of Gemini and Google Assistant in a blog post today. “Gemini Advanced not only allows you to have longer, more detailed conversations; it also better understands the context from your previous prompts.”

Customers will need to sign up for a Gemini Advanced subscription as part of the $20 per month Google One AI Premium plan. Bard, now Gemini, is available in over 230 countries.

“Google is making some really bold and powerful moves in the AI market,” said Irfan Khan, CEO and president of Google partner Cloudsufi. “Their generative AI piece is coming together. We’re working with Google and their customers very closely as we’re trying to help them reimagine [digital transformation] with AI.”

Cloudsufi is a top Google Cloud AI partner with sales jumping 50 percent in 2023 thanks to AI.

“Customers are asking about very relevant use cases for AI, like, ‘How does AI change the future of work?” said Khan (pictured above). “Google and Cloudsufi are right in the middle of the storm and the whole world is going to be shifting. … I’m happy to see Google continuing to push the envelope in AI.”

Duet AI For Workspace And Google Cloud Is Now Gemini

Bard isn’t the only AI product Google is rebranding.

Google is also folding all its Duet AI features inside Google Workspace into the Gemini brand. Launched in 2023, Duet AI helps users draft emails, organize spreadsheets and boost work-related productivity.

Duet AI will become Gemini for Workspace, which includes products such as Gmail and Docs. People with the Google One AI Premium plan will be able to use Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Meet, Slides and Sheets.

For Google Cloud customers, Duet AI will also become Gemini in the coming weeks.

“Gemini will help companies boost productivity, developers code faster, and organizations to protect themselves from cyber-attacks, along with countless other benefits,” said Google’s CEO, referring to the benefits for Google Cloud customers.

Gemini On Phones

With Gemini now on the phone, users can type, talk or add an image for help while on the go.

“You can take a picture of your flat tire and ask for instructions, generate a custom image for your dinner party invitation or ask for help writing a difficult text message. It’s an important first step in building a true AI assistant—one that is conversational, multimodal and helpful,” said Google’s Hsiao.

For iOS, Gemini is coming to the Google app in the coming weeks. “Just tap the Gemini toggle and chat with Gemini to supercharge your creativity, create custom images, get help writing social posts and even plan a date night right from the Google app,” Hsiao said.

The Future Of Google Gemini

In December, Google launched its new AI LLM Gemini, dubbing it as the most capable generative AI model and LLM in the industry.

Gemini was built from the ground up to be multimodal, which means it can generalize and seamlessly understand, operate across and combine different types of information including text, code, audio, image and video.

There are three flavors to Google Gemini: Nano, Pro and Ultra.

Google said Ultra can outperform human experts on massive multitask language understanding (MMLU) that leverages dozens of subjects—such as physics, math, law, and history—for problem solving and knowledge.

The future of Google’s AI strategy revolves around Gemini as the company will continue to create better versions on the technology.

“These latest updates reflect how we’re approaching innovation boldly, and advancing and deploying this technology responsibly. And we’re already well underway training the next iteration of our Gemini models,” said Google’s CEO.