Gemini
Google announces Gemini: it’s most powerful AI model, powered by TPU chips
Google claims it has developed a new Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) system and Large Language Model (LLM) more powerful than any currently on the market, including technology developed by ChatGPT creator OpenAI. Gemini can summarize text, create images and answer questions. Gemini was trained on Google’s Tensor Processing Units v4 and v5e.
Google’s Bard is a generative AI based on the PaLM large language mode. Starting today, Gemini will be used to give Bard “more advanced reasoning, planning, understanding and more,” according to a Google blog post.
While global users of Google Bard and the Pixel 8 Pro will be able to run Gemini now, an enterprise product, Gemini Pro, is coming on Dec. 13th. Developers can sign up now for an early preview in Android AICore.
Gemini comes in three model sizes: Ultra, Pro and Nano. Ultra is the most capable, Nano is the smallest and most efficient, and Pro sits in the middle for general tasks. The Nano version is what Google is using on the Pixel, while Bard gets Pro. Google says it plans to run “extensive trust and safety checks” before releasing Gemini Ultra to select groups.
Gemini can code in Python, Java, C++, Go and other popular programming languages. Google used Gemini to upgrade Google’s AI-powered code generation system, AlphaCode. Next, Google plans to bring Gemini to Ads, Chrome and Duet AI. In the future, Gemini will be used in Google Search as well.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Market Impact:
Gemini’s release and use will present a litmus test for Google’s technology following a push to move faster in developing and releasing AI products. It coincides with a period of turmoil at OpenAI that has sent tremors through the tight knit AI community, suggesting the industry’s leaders is far from settled.
The announcement of the new GenAI software is the latest attempt by Google to display its AI portfolio after the launch of ChatGPT about a year ago shook up the tech industry. Google wanted outside customers to perform testing on the most advanced version of Gemini before releasing it more widely, said Demis Hassabis, chief executive officer of Google DeepMind.
“We’ve been pushing forward with a lot of focus and intensity,” Hassabis said, adding that Gemini likely represented the company’s most ambitious combined science and engineering project to date.
Google said Wednesday it would offer a range of AI programs to customers under the Gemini umbrella. It touted the software’s ability to process various media, from audio to video, an important development as users turn to chatbots for a wider range of needs.
The most powerful Gemini Ultra version outperformed OpenAI’s technology, GPT-4, on a range of industry benchmarks, according to Google. That version is expected to become widely available for software developers early next year following testing with a select group of customers.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Role of TPUs:
While most GenAI software and LLM’s are processed using NVIDIA’s neural network processors, Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs) will power Gemini. TPUs are custom-designed AI accelerators, which are optimized for training and inference of large AI models. Cloud TPUs are optimized for training large and complex deep learning models that feature many matrix calculations, for instance building large language models (LLMs). Cloud TPUs also have SparseCores, which are dataflow processors that accelerate models relying on embeddings found in recommendation models. Other use cases include healthcare, like protein folding modeling and drug discovery.
Google’s custom AI chips, known as tensor processing units, are embedded in compute servers at the company’s data center. Photo Credit: GOOGLE
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Competitors:
Gemini and the products built with it, such as chatbots, will compete with OpenAI’s GPT-4, Microsoft’s Copilot (which is based on OpenAI’s GPT-4), Anthropic’s Claude AI, Meta’s Llama 2 and more. Google claims Gemini Ultra outperforms GPT-4 in several benchmarks, including the massive multitask language understanding general knowledge test and in Python code generation.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
References:
Everything to know about Gemini, Google’s new AI model (blog.google)
Google Reveals Gemini, Its Much-Anticipated Large Language Model (techrepublic.com)