Google touted live demos of its new Gemini Pro developer tools

When Google has dropped its new generative AI model Gemini in a pre-recorded video demo last week, it highlighted the differentiating elements of the ChatGPT competitor, such as its ability to speak out loud. But there seemed to be a gap between what was shown and the big language model’s true capabilities.

Sure enough, Google admitted the video was edited. In the YouTube description of the demo, it says “Latency has been reduced and Gemini outputs have been shortened for brevity,” making the AI ​​system seem more responsive than it is. The staged aspects of the demo was called out through websites like Bloomberg and TechCrunch.

Google may have taken notice.

This week, the tech giant returned with two “live demos” demonstrating its new Gemini Pro tool, AI Studio and Vertex AI, which allows developers to build generative AI applications. AI Studio is a free, web-based tool that lets you quickly create incentives to use when building applications. Vertex AI allows for customization of Gemini, such as refining it with a company’s data, and includes additional security features. Both tools, which were previewed to media outlets on December 11 and 12, are available today.

Katie Camacho, a Google spokeswoman, told Quartz that the AI ​​Studio and Vertex AI demonstrations “were live during the virtual press conferences on December 11th and December 12th.”

The change in approach underscores the need for Google to build confidence in its generative AI capabilities as OpenAI, Anthropic and other competitors make waves in a fast-moving market.

Google provides an overview of how AI Studio and Vertex AI work

At the start of the press briefing, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said there would be “live demonstrations” before recapping the Gemini Pro announcements from last week.

Josh Woodward, vice president of Google Labs, presented different capabilities of AI Studio, such as using the platform to write property descriptions after inserting photos from Google Drive. Once Woodward clicked the Run button, the tool took both the text and images and sent them to Gemini, which generated a detailed description of the property, in the style of a property listing.

Later, Nenshad Bardoliwalla, director of product management of Vertex AI, gave a tour of what Vertex AI looked like and showed the various features of the platform. For example, he highlighted the studio’s language capabilities by translating a property description into Spanish. Another feature was the platform’s ability to use real-time web data, such as vacation rental prices. These functions were used to customize the property related reminder.

Tech companies need developers to buy in

With OpenAI still at the forefront, there is a lot of pressure on Google to outperform the AI ​​startup. Google says that Gemini’s most advanced model beats OpenAI’s GPT-4, which came out in Marchin seven of eight major industry benchmarks.

Now Google will have to convince developers, who have had access to OpenAI’s GPT-4 for some time, to use its new Gemini Pro tool. Developers will have free access to Gemini Pro by AI Studio and Vertex AI, within limits, until general availability early next year, Google said. After that, the company will charge per 1,000 characters or per image on both platforms.

“[O]your goal is to attract developers with an attractive price,” Kurian said during the press briefing.