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Google renamed “Bard” to “Gemini” as part of launching mobile apps and an Advanced tier. While I was never a fan of the Bard name, Google might be pigeonholing itself by calling everything Gemini.
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Gemini is the name of Google’s flagship large language model (LLM). I believe it’s a reference to how the Google Brain and DeepMind teams were merged last year. Latin for “twins,” the Gemini name perfectly encapsulated that.
Now, Gemini is the name of all Google AI products. This includes the conversational AI chatbot on web and mobile, as well as experiences in Gmail, Docs, and other Workspace products. (Google Cloud will also be using that brand for enterprise tools.)
The consistency is not a bad idea as you previously had Bard and then Duet AI in some of Google’s most important consumer products, while Gemini Nano powers a handful of Android experiences. Google’s main rationale is that the new name emphasizes what end users are really interacting with:
Our mission with Bard has always been to give you direct access to our AI models, and Gemini represents our most capable family of models. To reflect this, Bard will now simply be known as Gemini.
However, I don’t think the model and product should share the same name, especially one that people are not really aware of.
I think astrology is most people’s entry point to the term, with NASA’s Project Gemini – Apollo’s precursor – possibly being next.
