Google’s AI Chatbot App Gemini Ventures Into India

Tech giant Google has expanded the reach of its AI-powered chatbot, Gemini App, to more than 150 countries and territories, including India.

On its support page, Google said that it will gradually expand the app to more languages, countries and territories soon. Currently, the app is available in English, Korean and Japanese languages.

“Gemini mobile apps are currently available in English, Japanese, and Korean languages in more than 150 countries. We’ll gradually expand to more languages, countries, and territories in a way that is consistent with local regulations and our AI principles,” read the support page. 

The launch comes barely a week after the tech major rebranded its chatbot, erstwhile Bard, to Gemini and launched a standalone app for its Android users. It also announced the launch of its subscription-based chatbot service, called Gemini Advanced, for INR 1,950 in India.

Google Gemini is the tech giant’s next-generation family of multimodal (able to work with more than just text) AI large language models (LLMs). Built by Google’s AI research labs, DeepMind and Google Research, Gemini is capable of processing across formats such as language, audio, code and video.

The newly launched smartphone app can respond to voice, generate images, draft emails, analyse personal photos, write poetry and much more. 

It is pertinent to note that the Gemini app is different from Gemini LLMs as the latter is the technology underlying the former akin to how GPT is to ChatGPT. The first iteration of Gemini, version 1.0, was announced in December last year.

Last week, Google rolled out the Gemini 1.0 Ultra, and, on Friday (February 16), the tech major said that it was ready to introduce the next generation of its LLM, Gemini 1.5.

“Our teams continue pushing the frontiers of our latest models with safety at the core. They are making rapid progress. In fact, we’re ready to introduce the next generation: Gemini 1.5. It shows dramatic improvements across a number of dimensions and 1.5 Pro achieves comparable quality to 1.0 Ultra, while using less compute,” said Alphabet’s chief executive officer Sundar Pichai on Friday. 

The development comes at a time when the GenAI space in India is witnessing rapid adoption among masses and enterprises. This has spawned a number of homegrown AI startups looking to tap into the growing ecosystem including names such as Bhavish Aggarwal-led Krutrim and SarvamAI that have raised millions of dollars in funding in recent months. 

Krutrim even turned unicorn after a $50 Mn round last month.

At the heart of it all is the country’s burgeoning GenAI market which is projected to surpass the $17 Bn mark by 2030, as per Inc42. The same report notes that India is home to more than 70 GenAI startups, which raised $440 Mn+ between 2019 and Q3 2023.

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