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Google announced on Thursday that it’s renaming its popular artificial intelligence chatbot: Bard is now Gemini. Simultaneously, Google is also releasing a new app for the bot for Android that’s intended to replace Google Assistant. The company will also be releasing a paid version of the bot called Gemini Ultra 1.0, which promises to be much more powerful than the free version.
The update represents a massive shift in focus for the company—and is potentially its most consequential product release in years. It’s also more evidence that Google is set on becoming an AI-first company for the foreseeable future.
“Our mission with Bard has always been to give you direct access to our AI models, and Gemini represents our most capable family of models,” Google VP of Gemini Sissie Hsiao wrote in a blog post. “To reflect this, Bard will now simply be known as Gemini.”