Google just upgraded its AI chatbot. Access to the new Gemini Advanced chatbot is available right now through a monthly subscription to Google One, the company’s cloud backup service.
With today’s release, there’s a new tier of Google One service called the AI Premium plan, which costs $20 per month; subscribe and you’ll get the standard Google One benefits, plus access to a new chatbot powered by the Gemini Ultra 1.0 model.
That $20 monthly fee is the same price OpenAI charges for access to its GPT-4 model via ChatGPT Plus. Google previously offered a chatbot known as “Bard,” but the company has renamed its AI offerings as “Gemini.” Don’t want to pay for your AI tools? Google continues to offer its more basic chatbot, the Gemini Pro model, for free.
While aspects of Google’s Gemini Ultra model were shown off months ago in sometimes questionable demos, the juiced up version was not made available to the public during Gemini’s initial rollout. Now the more capable version has arrived.
Gemini Advanced, similar to OpenAI’s GPT-4, may be better at understanding the nuance and context of user prompts. It should also perform better at jobs like writing code when compared to previous large language models. Gemini Advanced is currently just designed for answering prompts in English, but additional languages are expected to receive support with future iterations.
Curious about trying out Google’s latest chatbot and wondering how the subscription plan compares to ChatGPT Plus? Here’s everything you need to know about getting started with Gemini Advanced.
How to Access Google’s Gemini Advanced
Instead of offering access through a stand-alone subscription, Google is making Gemini Advanced available as part of a new tier for Google One called “AI Premium.” If you don’t already have a Google account, you’ll need to create one before signing up to use the chatbot. If you do already subscribe to a Google One plan, you’ll be able to upgrade to the new plan that includes chatbot access. Check out WIRED’s guide to Google One for a deeper dive into what’s included with the different tiers.
After switching over to Gemini Advanced, Google’s suggested prompts become more intricate.