Bard—remember Bard, the artist formerly known as Bard—who's not called Bard anymore? So, uh, we can jump right into what actually happened. Essentially, there's an update for Google Assistant with Bard on our Android phones that is now just calling it Gemini.
Gemini was already the name of, I think, the large language model that was underneath a lot of what it did. Yeah, but now they're just calling the whole thing Gemini, and the name Bard is just gone. So they're getting rid of the Bard branding altogether.
Okay, um, which is the most Google thing I've ever heard: develop some brand identity for a year and then just be like "JK" and make it a whole new one that's also not Google Assistant when they already had the Google Assistant branding since 2016. Anyway, what's happening is they are basically rolling out a mobile app for Gemini, called Gemini Advanced, that uses Gemini Ultra 1. 0.
Sick! So there's going to be a dedicated app for it. I don't think there was a dedicated app for Bard, right?
Right. Yeah, so you just had to use it in the mobile app or in the browser. So yeah, that's basically the news.
It's kind of very Google to just throw away this brand identity and name and everything. I will say, though, we have been testing Gemini Advanced with Ultra 1. 0 for the last couple of months on a couple of different phones, and it's been really, really good—at least for me.
Yeah, I've been using it for research purposes, and I do fact-check everything it tells me, but it hasn't really been hallucinating almost at all, which has been really useful. And I've been looking at very niche things that I need for specific videos that I'm working on that are really hard to Google correctly. I could have used that for the prices of 1975 VCRs, yeah, if it was able to link me to things.
Yeah, it can source maybe a little. Yeah, but I was able to say, "Explain this to me like I'm 12," and it will actually give me analogies. I love that!
Pretty awesome. Yeah, there are all kinds of hacks and things that work really well with it. I love it!
I think we’re all kind of expecting this to be a thing across all the assistants. The mobile assistants are long overdue for an update. There are all these rumors we keep seeing about a large language model and a big Siri update and all these helpful functions.
I think it would be awesome to see that. Also, um, Bixby—kind of. I don't know why that wasn't part of the Samsung AI update.
It was kind of confusing how Bixby didn't get any love, but then there's tons of AI all around Bixby. Yeah, whatever. Anyway, so Google Assistant—yeah, I think I've used it again for a lot of similar stuff to you.
I mean, Gemini 1. 0 with Ultra 1. 0—I’m going to—yes, this is the thing about rebranding Gemini with Ultra 1.
0. I've been using Gemini, and not to be confused with the Smith movie, and it has a lot of overlap with the stuff that I was using Google Assistant for, but it also actually didn't do some of the things that Assistant did. So it's like it’s picking up mostly where Assistant left off for me, and it does way more of that fun stuff like explaining things and generating things.
But I needed to, like, loop in— you can't do home control and stuff with it. That's like the whole—what's going on with the Google Assistant thing. Everyone just assumed that Google was going to add large language model capabilities to Google Assistant because the Assistant branding has very strong brand recognition.
It’s been around since 2016; it's in a ton of smart speakers; it's in people's cars in Android Auto. Like, they've been using that hotword, and the Google Assistant logo is recognizable to most people. So for them to be developing this whole separate thing on the side just feels very strange.
I assumed that they were doing that with Bard so they could develop it and make it not hallucinate and lie to you before they coupled it in with Google Assistant, which has the ability to control your smart home stuff. I don't really know why they didn't just keep developing Bard until it was ready to couple in with Google Assistant. I knew they were going to kill Bard at some point, but why are they rebranding it already?
I have no idea. Yeah, the branding thing is confusing to me. Yeah, I was just— as someone who hasn't gotten to test it, so I have no real input in this, what I will say is Bard is a great name and I'm very sad they're getting rid of it.
I would much rather, when it gets to that point, say, "Hey Bard. " Yo, Bard! What?
As the wake-up word. "Hey G"—the full thing is extremely annoying to say, and I feel like I just mumble it to the point where now it doesn't really recognize me anymore. "Hey Gemini" is going to be annoying.
If there's someone in the future who watches this—also, no, no, no. I don't think there is a hot word for this. This smart—it does go to— do you think it just gets used?
You said if it eventually pairs. . .
Eventually, they're. . .
Going to, it's going to be Google Assistant powered by GEM. Okay, yeah, so it's still an annoying Google to say yes I want. Hey, Bard, that’s so much better.
Well, you can forget about Bard. He's. .
. yeah, that’s also. .
. there’s like a little balance I have to strike: it can't be too easy to say because you might accidentally say it with other syllables, sir. Both?
Yeah, well, the accidental triggers on Siri go hard, so maybe that’s because it does that. Whenever I say "sorry," it always triggers. Yeah, so there’s a balancing act, but I agree.
Yeah, it’s a little confusing that it is developed in sort of a separate silo from Google Assistant. And then I suppose at some point eventually it'll be good enough that they feel like combining it all into one mega, new, rebranded, named thing. Maybe, who knows?
But I feel like they're just going to name it Siri eventually. Yeah, that's the loop we're going to encounter. It'll be called Google Messenger.
I just want to read a quote from the press release that they sent me. All right, Bard will be called Gemini, and we're rolling out a mobile app and Gemini Advanced with ultra 1. 0.
Yeah, that's not confusing at all. Okay, so it’s a lot of words. Sounds like some startup event where you're just like, “I think I understand, but I'm too embarrassed to ask.
” Wait, I just have a theory because Gemini is a constellation—yes. And we always see the stars to represent the AI thing. Yeah, maybe that’s the reason why they called it Gemini.
They publicly said that, David. Why do they use the twinkly stars to represent AI? I'm going to Japan to find out.
Oh yeah, I'm interviewing the guy who invented the emoji in Japan while I'm there. Is he going to explain everything? I hope so.
I hope so too; that sounds sick. Okay, yeah, I want to know how big the team at Google is that just names things. Do you think there are at least a hundred employees that are just naming things, or do you think it's all the teams that are naming things?
I think it's one employee, and he's 15 feet tall, and he has this giant chair. They go in and they say, “Oh, King of Names, what shall we name this? ” And he goes, “Gemini,” and they go, “Aha!
” And he says, “Wait, wait, never mind, that was all embargoed; we weren't allowed to say that. ” So this is actually way too in the weeds and only really makes sense for people that were working at Google at the time. Yeah, it’s not a really fun reason why they called it Gemini.
The reason they called it Gemini is that the astrological sign for Gemini is the twins, right? Yeah. And it’s Pal and Lambda?
No, uh, no, no. When they had Google DeepMind and Google Brain both at Google at the same time that were kind of doing very similar tasks, they merged them. There was a trivia question about it.
I feel like, yeah, this sounds very familiar. The merger of Google DeepMind and Google Brain into just Google DeepMind—they called it Gemini because they were merging the twins, which is what happens in the constellation. And it also is a constellation, which is stars, and now it's associated with the stars.
B is better; that giant does good work. I also love this quote: “The twins were the Brain team, which worked on LLMs such as PaLM, and the DeepMind team, which worked on the Chinchilla project. ” What's the Chinchilla project?
I don't know, ask the guy in the big chair. *Click* that link! Right, it’s like a horror movie!
What is the Chinchilla project? What the. .
. is this a dog looking at a lemon meringue pie? Anyway, um, yeah, so that'll be fun.
I'm kind of excited that there’s going to be a dedicated app for it, and I’m hoping that you’ll be able to map that to the action button on the iPhone 15. Because previously, we’ve been testing the Bard with Gemini capabilities, Bard Advanced, which has Gemini 1. 0 in it, which is not—anyway, Ultra 1.
0. Yeah, we—sorry, I didn’t want to… no, you’re right, you’re right; I’m just frustrated. We’ve been testing that, but you weren’t able previously to launch that app immediately with the action button on the iPhone 15.
You could only launch the Google app because the only way to actually interact with the Bard Advanced thing was in the Google app instead of the Assistant app. So you guys are all probably really bored right now, dosing off. Wake up and let’s continue the podcast!
The new UI is cool. I like it. Yeah, I like it; it’s got pretty colors.
No, it’s got this new—what’s the weather tomorrow? Big text! And then it’s still just writing what you’re saying.
Now it’s just going to write what I’m saying, but yeah, let’s do things. Yeah, and I like the stars! Yeah, anyway, that would be that.
Okay, thanks for watching that clip! We need an outro for the clip, so what I would suggest is we all sit here and explain why you should like the video. But more importantly, watch the full episode.
If you want the context of the whole conversation, why would you ever want context? So you can see me really botch this week’s trivia question! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah—ex, just terrible.
That’s a huge reason to go watch. So yeah, they got to the end of the clip, and then we tell them, “Go watch Ellis fumble the trivia question. ” Just… just… Trip over it over and over so that, so yeah.
So we also talk about other stuff: what other stuff? Cars, life, if photos are real. Photos are real.
Earth, Wind, air, fire, air.
