Google has launched upgrades to its Gemini AI chatbot, which now responds faster to your requests with better results and links to related content. The improvements require the updated 1.5 Flash model, which Google said will be available in Gemini “in the coming week.”
The latest 1.5 Flash AI large language model demoed at Google I/O 2024 is now available in the free version of Gemini in the mobile app and web interface at gemini.google.com. To support the latest capabilities, Google has equipped the 1.5 Flash model with 32,000 tokens, four times the previous version. Increasing the number of tokens that Gemini can process simultaneously enables longer prompts and helps deliver higher-quality results.
Google said in a blog post, “That means you can have longer back-and-forth conversations and ask Gemini more complex questions — all free of charge.” The company also said you should notice “across-the-board improvements in quality and latency, with especially noticeable improvements in reasoning and image understanding.”
The company will also “soon” let you upload files to the free version of Gemini, which was only possible in the paid version. A file you throw at Gemini is used for contextual prompts. For example, you could ask Gemini to analyze the uploaded image or your economics study guide to have it create practice questions. Another coming-soon feature will enable the AI chatbot to analyze data files and create charts and graphics.
Next, to help combat misinformation on the web and reduce AI hallucinations which create nonsensical outputs, Gemini is gaining citations in the form of links to source materials in responses. If you see a chip at the end of a paragraph, hit it to reveal relevant links, if any. Folks who use the Gmail extension may even see links to relevant emails from which Gemini sourced the required information. At launch, this feature was restricted to English language prompts “in certain countries.”
Gemini is already available on iOS, Android, and Web, but now it’s finally coming to Google Messages in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. If you have it already, press “Start chat” in Google Messages and select “Gemini” to start chatting. One more thing: Gemini in Messages now supports more languages, including French, Polish, and Spanish.
Finally, Gemini is expanding to teens with 40 languages supported (listed on Google’s support page) across 230 countries. Teens at least 13 years old with a Google Account can now safely use Gemini as a research tool, and Google hasworked with child safety and development organizations to implement new policies and safeguards to prevent misuse.
Source: Google
