Gemini subscribers have two new features to play with

By Andrew Tarantola Published August 28, 2024

Gemini running on the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. — Ajay Kumar / Digital Trends

Google Gemini subscribers of the paying variety have some new AI features to play with, the company announced on Wednesday. Not only has Google fixed the Gemini’s image generator, which it paused in February due to “historical inaccuracies,” but it is also rolling out Gems, smaller and more specialized chatbots akin to OpenAI’s GPTs.

When Google introduced its image generator for Gemini in early February, and the tool immediately started cranking out racially biased pictures of racially diverse Nazis and “founding fathers.”

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“We’re aware that Gemini is offering inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions,” a Google statement on X (formerly Twitter) from February 21 reads. “We’re working to improve these kinds of depictions immediately. Gemini’s AI image generation does generate a wide range of people. And that’s generally a good thing because people around the world use it. But it’s missing the mark here.”

It took the company a few months, but Gemini can once again generate images of humans. But only if you pay for it. To start, Google plans to offer this capability only to Advanced, Business, or Enterprise subscribers. The company did not disclose when it would be available to all users.

“Gemini Advanced gives our users priority access to our latest features,” a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch. “This helps us gather valuable feedback while delivering a highly anticipated feature first to our premium subscribers.”

The company has also announced that it is finally rolling out its Gems feature, which was first introduced at I/O in May. Gems are Gemini’s version of ChatGPT’s GPT, down to the truncated naming structure. They’re essentially mini-chatbots that perform only a few specialized functions, like giving gardening advice, cooking and nutrition tips, or trip planning. Since they’re smaller, they can infer responses more quickly than bringing the entire weight of the larger language model to bear.

Gemini Advanced, Business, and Enterprise subscribers will soon be able to create their own Gems on their mobile and desktop devices in over 150 countries and “most” languages.

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Andrew Tarantola

Computing Writer

Andrew Tarantola is a journalist with more than a decade reporting on emerging technologies ranging from robotics and machine…

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