A year after introducing its AI platform Bard to challenge OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google is retiring Bard and rebranding it as Gemini, the name of its family of Large Language models.

Google has also unveiled Gemini Ultra 1.0, also known as Gemini Advanced, representing its most sophisticated large language model to date. The tech giant is offering it at a monthly subscription rate of $19.9, comparable to ChatGPT's $20 per month fee for the advanced model, ChatGPT Plus.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, shared the announcement in a blog post on Thursday. He stated, “Bardhas been the best way for people to directly experience our most capable models. To reflect the advanced technology at its core, Bard will now simply be calledGemini. It’s available in 40 languages on the web and will soon be accessible through a new Gemini app on Android and the Google app on iOS.”

Elaborating further, Pichai said: “The version featuring Ultra capabilities will be known as Gemini Advanced, offering an enhanced experience with superior reasoning, instruction-following, coding, and creative collaboration abilities. For instance, it can function as a personalized tutor, tailored to individual learning styles, or serve as a creative partner, assisting in content strategy planning or business plan development.”

Gemini Advanced will initially be accessible in over 150 countries and territories, albeit exclusively in English. Japanese and Korean language options are planned for future expansion.

Highlighting the capabilities of Gemini Advanced, Pichai asserted its ability to surpass human experts in MMLU (massive multitask language understanding). This involves a comprehensive array of 57 subjects, spanning math, physics, history, law, medicine, and ethics, to assess knowledge and problem-solving proficiencies.

With that,Googlewill also sunset the Duet AI brand, which was mostly restricted to its AI features in Workspace, and move that to Gemini as well.