Gemini 1.5 Flash: This is what the Google AI update is all about

The update to Gemini 1.5 Flash delivers better performance for the Google AI and a more compressed version that works much faster

The most important information about the Gemini 1.5 Flash update

With the AI update to version 1.5, Gemini receives some improvements that not only affect performance, but also cost efficiency.

• Since version 1.5, Gemini has been able to process significantly more complex or larger content. The information processing of the AI works with the help of so-called tokens. They represent the scope with which it works. Tokens can contain texts, for example, but also audiovisual media, which Gemini can analyze, understand and process in order to complete the tasks assigned to it. The first model, based on 1.5, is Gemini 1.5 Pro.

• The 32,000 tokens of version 1.0 have been expanded to 1 million for 1.5. This allows the AI to reliably process larger amounts of data such as 11 hours of audio material, texts with up to 700,000 words, one hour of video content or over 30,000 lines of code at once. Gemini’s reasoning ability when dealing with large amounts of data has been adapted so that the AI can provide better solutions to problems, for example.

• In addition to 1.5 Pro, 1.5 Flash was released and represents a more compact and therefore cost-saving alternative. It is primarily intended for use in situations where tasks need to be processed quickly and on a large scale. It also has a context frame of 1 million tokens and is able to pull information from various media formats for processing requests.

• It generally accesses the same functions as 1.5 Pro and, despite the leaner model, only executes the requests made to the AI to a limited extent less efficiently. In addition to the higher speed of Flash, the lower costs compared to 1.5 Pro are the main argument for using the AI model.

• Applications for 1.5 Flash could include chatbots such as Character.ai or AI Dungeon, where a large number of users make requests to the AI to generate content and conduct conversations.

Using Gemini on Android smartphones

While Gemini 1.5 Pro and 1.5 Flash are primarily of interest to companies and developers who want to integrate the technology into their own products and services, Gemini is also available for everyday use in the form of a smartphone app, available on Android devices.

• The Google Gemini smartphone app is able to generate texts and images, answer questions and analyze content such as images. It can also access other Google apps to handle queries

• It can also be controlled by voice command and used instead of the already established Google Assistant if required. To switch between the Google Assistant and Gemini, go to your profile picture in the Gemini app at the top right and click on “Digital Assistants from Google” under Settings/Settings. Here you can choose between Gemini and Google Assistant as your active digital assistant

• Alternatives to the Google Gemini smartphone app are, for example, the Digital Assistant Copilot from Microsoft and, if it’s purely about AI functions, ChatGPT from OpenAI.