Google unveils its first Gemini 2.0 AI model.

• On Wednesday, Google made public the initial release of its Gemini 2.0 series of artificial intelligence models.
• The Gemini 2.0 Flash model is accessible in a chat format for all users worldwide, while a multimodal version is available to developers for experimentation.
• Google's latest AI advancements are embodied in Gemini 2.0, which represents its efforts to stay competitive in the tech industry's AI race.

On Wednesday, the company released the initial version of its Gemini 2.0 line of AI models.

The Gemini 2.0 Flash model is accessible worldwide in a chat version, while a multimodal version with text-to-speech and image generation capabilities is available to developers.

Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, stated that while Gemini 1.0 focused on organizing and comprehending information, Gemini 2.0 aims to make it highly practical.

Google's latest large language model performs better than its predecessors in most user request areas, including code generation and providing factually correct responses. However, it falls short in one area: evaluating longer contexts, where Gemini 1.5 Pro excels.

The experimental Flash 2.0 can be accessed by Gemini users on desktop and mobile web by selecting it in the model drop-down menu. It will also be available on the Gemini mobile app soon, the company announced.

The multimodal version of Gemini Flash 2.0 will be accessible through Google's AI Studio and Vertex AI developer platforms.

Google announced that the multimodal version of Gemini 2.0 Flash will be generally available in January, along with additional Gemini 2.0 model sizes. The company also plans to expand Gemini 2.0 to more Google products in early 2025.

Google's latest AI project, Gemini 2.0, is part of its ongoing efforts to stay competitive in the tech industry's AI race. The company is facing competition from tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon, as well as startups like OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Anthropic, which created Claude.

The company has also released other research prototypes aimed at creating more "agentic" AI models and experiences. These models, according to the company, are capable of comprehending their surroundings, anticipating multiple steps ahead, and acting on your behalf, with your supervision.

In a conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin at The New York Times' DealBook Summit, Pichai challenged Microsoft's AI advancement and expressed his desire to conduct a side-by-side comparison of the two companies' models "any day, any time."

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