What is Gemini?
Gemini is Google’s long-promised, next-gen generative AI model family, developed by Google’s AI research labs DeepMind and Google Research. It comes in four flavors: Gemini Ultra, Gemini Pro, Gemini Flash, and Gemini Nano.
Gemini Models
- Gemini Ultra: a very large model
- Gemini Pro: a large model, smaller than Ultra, with the latest version, Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental, being Google’s flagship
- Gemini Flash: a speedier, "distilled" version of Pro, with a slightly smaller and faster version called Gemini Flash-Lite, and a version with reasoning capabilities, called Gemini Flash Thinking Experimental
- Gemini Nano: two small models, Nano-1 and Nano-2, designed to run offline
Gemini Apps
- Gemini apps are clients that connect to various Gemini models and layer a chatbot-like interface on top
- Gemini apps can accept images as well as voice commands and text, including files like PDFs and soon videos, either uploaded or imported from Google Drive
- Conversations with Gemini apps on mobile carry over to Gemini on the web and vice versa if you’re signed in to the same Google Account in both places
Gemini Advanced
- Gemini Advanced users get extra features, including priority access to new features, the ability to run and edit Python code directly in Gemini, and a larger "context window"
- Gemini Advanced can remember the content of – and reason across – roughly 750,000 words in a conversation (or 1,500 pages of documents), compared to the 24,000 words (or 48 pages) the vanilla Gemini app can handle
- Gemini Advanced also gives users access to Google’s Deep Research feature, which uses "advanced reasoning" and "long context capabilities" to generate research briefs
Gemini Pricing
- Gemini models are available through Google’s Gemini API for building apps and services, with free options that impose usage limits and leave out certain features, like context caching and batching
- Base pricing (not including add-ons like context caching) as of September 2024:
- Gemini 1.5 Pro: $1.25 per 1 million input tokens (for prompts up to 128K tokens) or $2.50 per 1 million input tokens (for prompts longer than 128K tokens); $5 per 1 million output tokens (for prompts up to 128K tokens) or $10 per 1 million output tokens (for prompts longer than 128K tokens)
- Gemini 1.5 Flash: 7.5 cents per 1 million input tokens (for prompts up to 128K tokens), 15 cents per 1 million input tokens (for prompts longer than 128K tokens), 30 cents per 1 million output tokens (for prompts up to 128K tokens), 60 cents per 1 million output tokens (for prompts longer than 128K tokens)
- Gemini 2.0 Flash: 10 cents per 1 million input tokens, 40 cents per 1 million output tokens. For audio specifically, it costs 70 cents per 1 million input tokens, and also 40 cents per 1 million output tokens
- Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite: 7.5 cents per 1 million input tokens, 30 cents per 1 million output tokens
Project Astra
- Project Astra is Google DeepMind’s effort to create AI-powered apps and "agents" for real-time, multimodal understanding
- Google has shown demos of the AI model simultaneously processing live video and audio
- The company has released an app version of Project Astra to a small number of trusted testers, but has no plans for a broader release right now
Is Gemini Coming to the iPhone?
- Apple has said it’s in talks to put Gemini and other third-party models to use for a number of features in its Apple Intelligence suite
- Following a keynote presentation at WWDC 2024, Apple SVP Craig Federighi confirmed plans to work with models, including Gemini, but didn’t divulge any additional details
Conclusion
Google’s Gemini offers a range of generative AI models and apps that can be used for a variety of tasks, from summarization and chat apps to image and video captioning and data extraction from long documents and tables. With its advanced features, including priority access to new features and the ability to run and edit Python code directly in Gemini, Gemini Advanced is a powerful tool for those looking to harness the power of generative AI.
FAQs
- Q: What is Gemini?
A: Gemini is Google’s long-promised, next-gen generative AI model family, developed by Google’s AI research labs DeepMind and Google Research. - Q: What are the different types of Gemini models?
A: Gemini comes in four flavors: Gemini Ultra, Gemini Pro, Gemini Flash, and Gemini Nano. - Q: What are the differences between the Gemini apps and the Gemini models?
A: The Gemini apps are clients that connect to various Gemini models and layer a chatbot-like interface on top, while the Gemini models are the underlying AI models that power the apps. - Q: How much does Gemini cost?
A: Gemini models are available through Google’s Gemini API for building apps and services, with free options that impose usage limits and leave out certain features, like context caching and batching. Base pricing (not including add-ons like context caching) as of September 2024 is listed above. - Q: Is Gemini coming to the iPhone?
A: Apple has said it’s in talks to put Gemini and other third-party models to use for a number of features in its Apple Intelligence suite, but no details have been announced yet.
