Google unveiled its latest AI model, 'Gemini 2.0,' to all users on the 5th (local time), targeting the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek.
'Gemini 2.0' is the latest AI model released in December last year, which had been available only to select developers and test program participants. On this day, it was suddenly made available to the general public.
The newly launched 'Gemini 2.0' product lineup includes Gemini 2.0 Flash, optimized for large-scale repetitive tasks; Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental, focused on coding performance; and Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite, emphasizing cost efficiency.
The Experimental 2.0 Flash is embedded in the Gemini application (app) and accessible to everyone. The other two models are offered in preview form through Google's AI tool for developers, 'Google AI Studio,' and the enterprise platform 'Vertex AI.'
The 'Flash' model is a lightweight version of the Gemini product line's Pro model, which varies in parameter size such as Ultra, Pro, and Nano. It was introduced starting from version 1.5.
Google described the 2.0 Flash Lite as an even lighter version than Flash and "the most cost-efficient model." Koray Kavukcuoglu, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Google DeepMind, stated, "After receiving positive feedback on Flash version 1.5, we developed Flash Lite."
This is interpreted as targeting DeepSeek's AI models such as V3 and R1. While major U.S. tech companies like Google, Microsoft (MS), and Meta have spent enormous amounts on AI development, DeepSeek recently shocked the market by unveiling AI models with excellent performance at low costs.
Foreign media estimated that the 2.0 Flash Lite costs $0.019 per one million tokens (units of data processed by AI models) based on input. This is similar to DeepSeek's AI model, which costs $0.014. It is significantly cheaper than OpenAI's cost-efficient version of ChatGPT, which costs $0.075.
Meanwhile, Google's stock price fell more than 7% in the New York stock market on the same day after announcing its Q4 earnings the previous day. This was due to the growth of Google's core business sector, the cloud division, falling short of market expectations.
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