In April, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai took an unusual step: merging two large artificial intelligence teams — with distinct cultures and code — to catch up to and surpass OpenAI and other rivals. Now the test of that effort is coming, with hundreds of people scrambling to release a group of large machine-learning models — one of the highest-stakes products the company has ever built — this fall. The Information: The models, collectively known as Gemini, are expected to give Google the ability to build products its competitors can’t, according to a person involved with Gemini’s development. OpenAI’s GPT-4 large-language model can understand and produce conversational text. Gemini will go beyond that, combining the text capabilities of LLMs like GPT-4 with the ability to create AI images based on a text description, similar to AI-image generators Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, this person said. Gemini’s image capabilities haven’t been previously reported.
Google employees have also discussed using Gemini to offer features like analyzing charts or creating graphics with text descriptions and controlling software using text or voice commands. Google is betting on Gemini to power services ranging from its Bard chatbot, which competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, to enterprise apps like Google Docs and Slides. Google also wants to charge app developers for access to Gemini through its Google Cloud server-rental unit. Google Cloud currently sells access to more primitive Google-made AI models through a product called Vertex AI. Those new features could help Google catch up with Microsoft, which has raced ahead with new AI features for its Office 365 apps and has also been selling access to OpenAI’s models to its app customers.
