Another serious asset for this Google launch is that Gemini is the first model to outperform human experts on MMLU (Massive Multitask Language Understanding). It is one of the most popular methods to test the knowledge and problem-solving abilities of AI models, using a combination of 57 subjects such as math, physics, history, law, medicine, and ethics for testing both world knowledge and problem-solving abilities.

Google’s Gemini is ‘next step on our journey’

Sundar Pichai, Google CEO said of the landmark launch, “I believe the transition we are seeing right now with AI will be the most profound in our lifetimes, far bigger than the shift to mobile or the web before it.”

“AI has the potential to create opportunities, from the every day to the extraordinary, for people everywhere.”

“Now, we’re taking the next step on our journey with Gemini, our most capable and general model yet, with state-of-the-art performance across many leading benchmarks.”

Google plans to license Gemini to users through Google Cloud to use in their applications, whilst it will power consumer-facing Google AI apps like the Bard chatbot and Search Generative Experience.

This is a bold, headline move from the tech giant as it aims to go head-to-head with OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT in what is a rapidly fluid and competitive playing field.

However, it will not yet be available in Europe or the UK, which Google suggested was down to regulatory hurdles, with more information to follow.

This all comes the day after Microsoft announced it was to supercharge its own Copilot with OpenAI upgrades.