The best version of Google Gemini is now available to more people, including teens
Google has upgraded its Gemini AI platform to be faster and more accurate by making the Gemini 1.5 Flash Large Language Model (LLM) available to more users and rolling out several new features.
The revamped Gemini aims to appeal to a wider user base, including many who may be using Gemini for the first time, thanks to new integrations with several Google platforms and expansion into more countries.
The Gemini 1.5 Flash LLM has been available to a select few users who have subscribed and paid for Gemini Advanced for a while now, but it is now available to everyone who uses Gemini. You now have access to the newer LLM, which is faster than its siblings in the Gemini family, and Google claims it is even better at understanding images.
The AI chatbot is also multiplying the size of its context window from four to 32,000 tokens, allowing for much longer and more complex conversations with Gemini. The larger window also sets Gemini’s free tier up for Google’s plan to add the ability to upload files to Gemini from Google Drive or your device, another Gemini Advanced feature.
“That means you’ll be able to do things like upload your economics study guide and ask Gemini to create practice questions for you,” Google explained in its announcement. “Gemini will also soon be able to analyze data files for you, so you can uncover insights and visualize them in graphs and charts.”
To be useful for that kind of academic work, Gemini needs to avoid or otherwise defeat the ubiquitous danger of AI hallucinations. Studying when you’re not sure whether the AI has produced correct or potentially misleading answers isn’t ideal, which is why Google recently added the double-check feature to Gemini, which uses Google Search to verify accuracy.
To address this issue, Gemini will now display links to relevant content online, and cite its sources, when prompted for facts. The idea is to make it easy for users to broaden their search or confirm what Gemini says by clicking on links to appropriate websites. The feature is initially available for English prompts, and will even include inline links to relevant emails when a Gemini user has the Gmail extension enabled. Here’s how the citation feature works. It’s basically showing off its work now.
Twins Worldwide
Google is also pushing for more people to at least experiment with Gemini in some form by expanding its geographic and application availability. For the first time, Gemini is now available directly within Google Messages on some Android devices in much of Europe, including the UK, Switzerland, and the entire European Economic Area (EEA). There are also new language options tailored to the continent, including French, Polish, and Spanish.
The same goes for the Gemini experience that Google has designed for teens, which was first announced in November. The option is rolling out globally in 40 languages. Google worked with child safety and development organizations in multiple countries on this version of Gemini ahead of this release, with the end goal of encouraging teens to use Gemini for creative and academic work.
Teens who meet the minimum age requirement to have their own Google account can use a version of Gemini with additional security policies and safeguards. There’s an onboarding process specifically for teens; they’re even given an AI literacy guide before the AI chatbot becomes available.
Gemini’s latest updates reflect Google’s efforts to compete with rivals like OpenAI and Meta. In this case, the selling point for Gemini 1.5 is Flash speed, with the quotes and other features amplifying user demand for faster accuracy and reliability.
As AI continues to evolve, the balance between speed, accuracy, and accessibility will be crucial. Google clearly wants to strike a perfect balance, but it’s not going to happen when AI models and products are evolving every week.
