Google has finally launched its own AI search engine to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot. After rebranding Bard chatbot to Gemini, Google last week re-launched the AI model, which has since received mixed reviews from its users.
Gemini has a non-paying model, Gemini Pro, that is a lighter version of the Ultra model, but answers all queries posed. Gemini Ultra or Advanced, requires a Google One AI subscription, which is $20/month, and will give you better reasoning, coding, and instruction-following skills than Gemini Pro, along with improved multimodal and data analysis capabilities in the near future. The AI Premium plan is integrated with the Google Workspace account—draft emails in Gmail, documents in Docs, presentations in Sheets, and Google Meet recordings.
When posed with sensitive, controversial political queries, Gemini was brief with the answers and asked users to Google them instead of providing details, especially pertaining to the Israel-Gaza conflict, TechCrunch noted.
A similar response was noted when posed with a political question about US President Joe Biden. However, it dove deep into discussing current TikTok trends freely, providing examples of trends that became quite popular.
While Google has warned users not to heed or ask AI models for medical advice, Gemini gave actionable steps to take when asked about a medical condition, warning that its advice shouldn't be relied on. When asked for advice on mental health, Gemini was quick to identify the diagnosis, listing recommended treatments, medications, and lifestyle changes.
The AI model was additionally careful to avoid racial and gender biases, which previous models have been criticised for.
Gemini's task integration is, no doubt, impressive. It not only efficiently planned out an entire travel itinerary with cheap flights and hotel options; but it was also effective in categorising Gmail inboxes according to content theme or receipt window.
While Gemini is a decent AI model in comparison with others, like ChatGPT, it doesn't offer anything unique that would distinguish it from others. The model's features have yet to be enabled to their full potential with additional integrations with Google's ecosystem. For now, at the same subscription, ChatGPT seems to offer more features with third-party plugins, custom instructions, and memory.
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