Google Releases Gemini 2.0 Family of Artificial Intelligence Models
Google released the first version of its Gemini 2.0 family of artificial intelligence models on Wednesday, comprising of Gemini 2.0 Flash. The Flash model is available as a chat version for users worldwide, while an experimental multimodal version with text-to-speech and image generation features is available to developers.
According to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Gemini 1.0 focused on organizing and understanding information, while Gemini 2.0 is designed to make it more useful. The new model outperforms its predecessors in most areas, including code generation and factually correct responses to user requests, but lags behind Gemini 1.5 Pro in evaluating longer contexts.
The chat-optimized version of Gemini 2.0 Flash is available through the model drop-down menu on desktop and mobile web, with availability on the Gemini mobile app to come soon. The multimodal version of Gemini 2.0 will be available through Google’s AI Studio and Vertex AI developer platforms, with general availability planned for January 2025, along with additional Gemini 2.0 model sizes.
Google’s goal is to expand Gemini 2.0 to more of its products in early 2025, as part of its efforts to stay competitive in the increasingly competitive AI market. Despite challenges from rivals like Microsoft and Meta, as well as startups like OpenAI, Google is pushing forward with new research prototypes, including agentic AI models designed to understand and take action on behalf of users.
