Google today announced that its generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) chatbot, Bard, is now available to Canadians, in both English and French. At the same time, it announced that Bard has been renamed Gemini.
Sissie Hsiao, vice president and general manager, Gemini experiences and Google Assistant, explained the name change: “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.”
Google’s group product manager, Gemini experiences Jules Walter said Gemini is, a “much more powerful model,” which the company launched in December in three flavours of various sizes to accommodate different devices and use cases.
Gemini Nano was released to handle on-device smartphone processing, Gemini Pro for Bard, and Gemini Ultra, an even more powerful model capable of coding and logical reasoning, is available in Gemini Advanced, a premium subscription service.
Gemini Advanced is part of the new Google One AI Premium Plan, launched today at C$26.99 per month, with a two month free trial.
According to Jack Krawczyk, product lead, Gemini experiences, the plan includes all of the features of the Google One Premium Plan, plus what he called “the best of Google AI”, and, in addition, subscribers will soon be able to use Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Slides, and Sheets. This functionality was formerly known as Duet AI, but is now called Gemini for Google Workspace.
Also coming soon are mobile apps, but only in English to begin with. Android will receive a new Gemini app, while iOS users will access Gemini through the Google app.
For now, Gemini access is via its website.