Their LLM brand is now Gemini. Gemini comes in three different sizes, Nano/Pro/Ultra.
They recently released 1.0 versions of each, most recently (a few months after Nano and Pro) Ultra.
Today they are introducing version 1.5, starting with the Pro size. They say 1.5 Pro offers comparable performance to 1.0 Ultra, along with new abilities (token window size).
(I agree Small/Medium/Large would be better.)
This is where it gets confusing IMO.
It's like if Apple announced macOS Blabahee, starting with Mini, not long after releasing Pro and Air touting benefits of Sonoma.
Also, just.. this is how TFA begins:
> Last week, we rolled out our most capable model, Gemini 1.0 Ultra, [...] Our teams continue pushing the frontiers of our latest models with safety at the core. They are making rapid progress. [...] 1.5 Pro achieves comparable quality to 1.0 Ultra
Last week! And now we have next generation. And the wow is that it's comparable to the best of the previous generation. Ok fine at a smaller size, but also that's all we get anyway. Oh and the most capable remains the last generation one. As long as it's the biggest one.
It's really not that confusing. There are different sizes and different generations, coming out at different times. This pattern is practically as old as computing itself.
I can't even imagine what alternative naming scheme would be an improvement.
I doubt they launched M2 MBAs while the MBP was running M1, for example. Or more directly, a low-mid spec M3 MBP while the top-spec M2 MBP (I assume that would out-benchmark it?) still for sale and no comparable M3 chip yet.
It's not having the matrix of size/power & generation that's confusing, it's the 'next generation' one initially launched not being the best. I think that's mainly it for me anyway.
But they have. The baseline M2 is significantly less powerful than the M1 Max.
What Google's doing is basically exactly like that. It happens all the time that the mid tier of the next generation isn't as good as the top tier of the previous generation. It might even be the norm.
There isn't a set order to things. Sometimes companies release a higher powered version first and then the budget version later, sometimes an entry-level version first and a pro version after. Sometimes both simultaneously. All of these are normal, and can even follow different orders generation to generation.
Google got caught completely flat footed by OpenAI. I'm going to cut them some slack that they want to show the world a bit of flex with their AI chops as soon as they have results.
Gemini Advanced is the paid subscription service tier that at the moment gets you access to the Ultra model, similar to how a ChatGPT Plus subscription gets you access to GPT-4.
Honestly, they should have called this part Gemini Chat and Gemini Chat Plus, but of course ego won't let them follow the competitor's naming scheme.
With an already complex naming for regular consumers (Nano/Pro/Ultra each one with a 1.x), adding this Advanced thing it becomes and spaghetti.
I understand that for most people may be just a chat input and don't care, but if people will consider to pay, they will research a bit and is confusing.
not an iphone user but just looked at iphone 15. Don't see any mini version. I am guess 'standard' is called just 'iphone' ? Is pro same thing as plus ?
https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-15
> Still difficult?
yes your example made it even more confusing.
Apple doesn't announce the iPhone 12 Mini and compare it to the iPhone 11 Pro.
Did you watch the announcements for the M2 and M3 pros? They compared it to the previous generations all the time.
It's however nowhere explicitly said that I could find. The Technical Report PDF also avoids even hinting at it.
Advanced is a price/service tier for the end-user frontend. At the moment it gets you 1.0 Ultra access vs. 1.0 Pro for the free version. Similar to how ChatGPT Plus gives you 4 instead of 3.5.
I agree this part is messy. Does everyone who had Pro already get 1.5 Pro? If 1.5 Pro is better than 1.0 Ultra, why pay for Advanced? Is 1.5 Pro behind the Advanced paywall? etc.
There are three models: nano/pro/ultra and all are at v1.0
There are two tiers of chat service: basic and pro
There is AIStudio from google through which you can interact with / use directly gemini llms.
Chat service Gemini basic (free) uses Gemini Pro 1.0 llm.
Chat service Gemini advanced uses Gemini Ultra 1.0 llm.
What was shown is ~~Ultra~~ Pro 1.5 LLM which is / will be available to select few for preview to be used via AIStudio.
That leaves a question, what's nano for, and is it only used via AIStudio/API?
Jesus, Google..
How this relates to the end-user chat service/price tiers is still unknown.
The best scenario would be that they just move Gemini free and Advanced tiers to Pro 1.5 and Ultra 1.5, I guess.
Gemini Advanced seems to be the brand name for the higher price tier for the end-user frontend that gets you Ultra access, similar how ChatGPT Plus gets you ChatGPT 4.
I get it, but it does beg the question whether you will need Advanced now to get 1.5 Pro. Or does everyone get Pro, making it useless to pay for 1.0 Ultra?
I still don't think it's confusing, but that part is definitely messy.
That's very difficult.
Vertex AI is their developer API platform.
I agree OpenAI is a bit better at launching for customers on ChatGPT alongside API.