Google is enhancing its Gemini chatbot with the new Gemini 1.5 Flash model, aiming to stay competitive with AI giants like Anthropic and OpenAI. These updates enhance performance and broaden accessibility, making Gemini available on both web and mobile platforms in 40 languages across 230 countries.
Starting Thursday, the Gemini 1.5 Flash model—first announced in May—will offer significant improvements in quality and speed, particularly in reasoning and image comprehension. This model might also reduce operational costs for Google.
Gemini 1.5 Flash is a streamlined version of the previous Gemini 1.5 Pro, designed for specialized, high-frequency AI tasks. As chatbots like Gemini are costly to maintain (as seen with OpenAI’s ChatGPT expenses), Google is keen to adopt cost-saving strategies that also enhance performance.
Additionally, Google is expanding Gemini’s context window to 32,000 tokens, or roughly 24,000 words. This allows the model to better summarize and analyze longer texts, and in a chatbot setting, remember recent topics more effectively.
Previously, uploading files for analysis required the premium Gemini Advanced edition, part of Google’s $20-per-month AI Premium Plan. Soon, all Gemini users will be able to upload files from Google Drive and local devices.
In an effort to address AI hallucinations—where models generate inaccurate information—Google is testing a feature that links related web content to certain AI-generated answers. English-speaking users in selected regions will see links to websites or emails for more context.
Following the initial launch of Gemini in Messages for certain devices, Google is expanding access to the European Economic Area, the UK, and Switzerland, adding languages like French, Polish, and Spanish. The Gemini mobile app is also being launched in more countries, with broader access for teenagers globally.
Introduced in June, the teen-focused Gemini experience allows students to sign up using school accounts. Soon, it will be available to teens everywhere Gemini is accessible to adults. Google is implementing new policies and safeguards to protect teen users and is providing an AI literacy guide to promote responsible AI use among young people.
For more insightful articles, subscribe to Globalbizoutlook or follow us on LinkedIn.
