If you’re a subscriber to Gemini Advanced then you might not have noticed but Google just quietly upgraded you to version 1.5 Pro-002 of its LLM, which is good news, because it’s much faster and more powerful than the previous version.
This new version 1.5 of Gemini Pro is optimized for chat and now provides better and more accurate responses for prompts related to math and exploring complex topics that invite thoughtful conversation. Effectively this means that you can now provide multi-step instructions without Gemini becoming confused about what you mean. Google also claims the new AI is more helpful, and better at providing relevant information and informative responses. It’s also faster, so you don’t have to wait as long for a response.
ChatGPT recently released an o1-preview LLM model to ChatGPT Plus subscribers, which had much better ability at math, and it will be interesting to compare how it performs to the new Gemini Pro 1.5.
Welcome to the Gemini family
Gemini is the universal name for Google’s LLM family, and it comes in four versions: a Pro version for Gemini Advanced subscribers, which costs $20 a month (£18.99/AU$32.99), and is the best-performing model. Flash, which is the smallest, most cost-effective multimodal mode (and what free tier users get by default). Nano, which is the version you can find embedded on smartphones, for on-device processing. Finally, there’s Ultra, which is its largest model and designed for highly complex tasks.
You used to need a subscription to Gemini Advanced to use Gemini Live – the AI Assistant found on Google Pixel phones that you could talk to using your voice, but Google recently dropped the requirement and made it free for all Android users. Gemini Live doesn’t use the more powerful Gemini Pro 1.5 LLM though, since that remains reserved for Gemini Advanced subscribers.
The AI wars are just beginning
Google isn’t the only AI company that’s upping its game and improving its AI smarts. ChatGPT recently started to roll out Advanced Voice Mode to its paid-for ChatGPT Plus subscribers and Microsoft has just launched a new, rebranded version of Copilot, its own AI that has a voice mode you can use entirely for free. The web-based version of Copilot is still rolling out, but to try Copilot now just download the Copilot app on your smartphone.
While Google’s Gemini Live is free to all Android owners who can run it on their smartphones, Microsoft has responded by making Copilot’s voice mode free to anybody who can run the Copilot app, even on iOS devices. That means iOS users can get their first taste of a voice-activated AI before Siri gets its own proper AI smarts, which should be coming soon.
Of course, the real value of an AI assistant is its ability to integrate with all your other apps, like your calendar and inbox, so it can do more useful things for you. These features are still coming to Gemini and aren’t here yet, but a general voice chat with AI, both Google Gemini Live and Microsoft Copilot are currently leading the way.
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graham.barlow@futurenet.com (Graham Barlow)
