Google takes on ChatGPT as it launches a sophisticated AI bot called Gemini – and it already outperforms its rival in most tests
- Gemini can understand text, images, videos, and audio – all at the same time
- It comes after Amazon’s Q chatbot for workers and Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot
Google was fearing the worst when competitor OpenAI unleashed its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, ChatGPT, a year ago.
Now, the tech giant has made a bold move in the battle of the bots, by releasing what it claims to be the most powerful AI ever, called Gemini.
Gemini – which has been built to power Google’s chatbot Bard – outperforms GPT-4, which powers ChatGPT, in the majority of cognitive tests.
The bot can tell users when an omelette is cooked, suggest the best design for a paper aeroplane or help a football player improve their skills.
But it’s especially adept in math and physics, fueling hopes that it may lead to scientific breakthroughs that improve life for humans.
Gemini is ‘multimodal’ meaning it understands not just text but also images, videos, and audio – all at the same time.
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Gemini is ‘multimodal’ meaning it understands not just text but also images, videos, audio and code – all at the same time.
It arrives shortly after Amazon’s Q chatbot for workers and Elon Musk’s sneak peak of the Grok chatbot for Twitter.
‘This is a significant milestone in the development of AI, and the start of a new era for us at Google,’ said Dennis Hassabis, CEO and co-founder of DeepMind, Google’s British AI subsidiary that built Gemini.
‘Gemini is the result of large-scale collaborative efforts by teams across Google, including our colleagues at Google Research.
‘It 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.’
Gemini doesn’t replace Bard, which Google released in March, but rather powers it; the tech giant describes Gemini as ‘the brains of the operation while Bard is the face of the operation’.
Google claims that Gemini outperforms GPT-4 on 30 out of 32 measures of performance – including text generation, question answering, reasoning, image understanding and ‘commonsense reasoning’.
In a research paper, Google outlines the various capabilities of Gemini when it comes to images, including what to knit from different coloured threads.
Gemini can output multiple images with text if it’s given a prompt composed of image and text
With Gemini providing a helping hand, Google promises Bard will become more intuitive and better at tasks that involve planning
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For example, the user gives the AI a photo of two yarns – green and pink – with the command ‘Give me two ideas that I could do with these two colours’.
The bot recognises the colours and returns AI images of ‘a cute green avocado with pink seed or a green bunny with pink ears’ as suggestions.
In another example, Gemini provides a step-by-step guide of how to cook an omelette by analysing images from the user at various points.
Gemini also analyses four images of a footballer taking a shot on the training ground and comes up with a 70-word response to the question ‘How could this person improve their technique?’
According to the research paper, Gemini can outperform GPT-4 on multiple-choice exams and grade-school maths.
The rollout of Gemini is unfolding in phases, with less sophisticated versions called ‘Nano’ and ‘Pro’ being immediately incorporated into Google’s Pixel 8 Pro smartphone and its AI-powered chatbot Bard, respectively.
With Gemini providing a helping hand, Bard will become better at understand more complex tasks that involve planning, reasoning and coding.
On the Pixel 8 Pro, Gemini will be able to quickly summarise recordings made on the device and provide automatic replies on messaging services, starting with WhatsApp.
In one example, Gemini provides a step-by-step guide of how to cook an omelette by analysing images from the user at various points
Gemini also analyses four images of a footballer taking a shot on the training ground and comes up with a 70-word response to the question ‘How could this person improve their technique?’
The top version of Gemini – called Ultra – has been designed for highly complex tasks but it won’t be released until early next year.
Ultra will be used to launch ‘Bard Advanced’, a super-charged version of the chatbot that initially will only be offered to a test audience.
Bard Advanced is expected to be capable of unprecedented AI multitasking by simultaneously recognising and understanding presentations involving text, photos and video.
At first, Gemini will only work in English, although Google said the technology will have no problem diversifying into other languages.
The rollout of Gemini is unfolding in phases, with less sophisticated versions called ‘Nano’ and ‘Pro’ being immediately incorporated into Google’s Pixel 8 Pro smartphone and its AI-powered chatbot Bard, respectively. The top version, Ultra, arrives next year
It will also eventually be infused into Google’s dominant search engine, although the timing of that transition hasn’t been confirmed yet.
Due to its impressive, human-like intelligence, Gemini may once again trigger the debate about the technology’s potential promise and perils.
Some are concerned about chatbot technology eventually eclipsing human intelligence, resulting in the loss of millions of jobs.
AI could even cause more destructive behavior, such as amplifying misinformation or triggering the deployment of nuclear weapons.
Paul Stollery, co-founder of tech consultancy Hard Numbers, said AI ‘will destroy a lot of jobs’ but it will do so slower than people expect.
‘Humans have a habit of overestimating the impact of new technology in the short term but underestimating it in the long term,’ he told MailOnline.
‘Gemini won’t be the moment that AI eclipses human intelligence.’
Artificial Armageddon? The 5 worst case scenarios for AI, revealed
In October, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak issued a frank warning over the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI).
While acknowledging the positive potential of the technology in areas such as healthcare, the PM said ‘humanity could lose control of AI completely’ with ‘incredibly serious’ consequences.
‘As with every wave of new technology, it also brings new fears and new dangers,’ the PM said.
The idea of indestructible killer robots may sound like something taken straight out of the Terminator (file photo)
‘AI could make it easier to build chemical or biological weapons.
‘Terrorist groups could use AI to spread fear and destruction on an even greater scale.
‘Criminals could exploit AI for cyber-attacks, disinformation, fraud, or even child sexual abuse.
‘And in the most unlikely but extreme cases, there is even the risk that humanity could lose control of AI completely through the kind of AI sometimes referred to as super intelligence.’
Rishi Sunak’s words mirror the warnings of many of the world’s top scientists, who think that in the near future, the technology could even be used to kill us.
Here are the five ways humans could be eliminated by AI, from the development of novel bioweapons to autonomous cars and killer robots.
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