How Google’s Gemini AI model got its name

Gemini obtained its first point out at I/O in 2023, after we briefly shared our first natively multimodal mannequin was in coaching and already exhibiting spectacular capabilities. One yr later, we’ve introduced Gemini fashions to Search, Advertisements, Workspace, Pixel and extra, together with a few of the greatest improvements we shared on the I/O stage yesterday.

As Gemini continues to make a reputation for itself, we puzzled, the place did that title come from? To seek out out, we requested the Google DeepMind group to share the origin story behind why they referred to as it “Gemini.”

The story behind the title

Early on, a placeholder title for the undertaking was “Titan,” the title of Saturn’s largest moon. “I wasn’t an enormous fan of that title,” says Jeff Dean, Gemini’s co-technical lead. But it surely gave him an concept — or maybe a signal — for a reputation grounded in house.

Gemini is Latin for “twins.” In astronomy, it’s the title of a constellation related to Greek mythological twins Castor and Pollux, for which its two brightest stars are named. Naturally, then, the which means behind our AI mannequin’s title is two-fold.

For one, a key attribute of the Gemini zodiac signal is a dual-natured character, able to adapting shortly, connecting to a variety of individuals, and seeing issues from a number of views — themes nicely fitted to what was taking place at Google on the time.

For practically a decade, DeepMind and the Mind group from Google Analysis have been chargeable for a few of the world’s greatest analysis breakthroughs in AI, together with deep learning at scale, deep reinforcement learning and AlphaGo, the Transformer architecture that underpins practically all massive language fashions (LLMs) immediately and far more. To additional speed up our progress, in April 2023, the groups joined forces to kind Google DeepMind, bringing their expertise in AI, computing energy, infrastructure and sources collectively all below one group.

The primary mission that that crew got down to launch? A collection of highly effective, multimodal AI fashions.

“The Gemini effort happened as a result of we needed to convey our groups engaged on language modeling nearer collectively,” Jeff says. “I felt the twins facet of the title ‘Gemini’ was a fantastic match. The twins listed below are the oldsters within the legacy Mind group and the legacy DeepMind group, who began to work collectively on this formidable multimodal mannequin undertaking.”

The opposite inspiration for the title can be space-related: NASA’s early moonshot program, Project Gemini, which lasted from 1965 to 1968.

The pivotal house program was the bridge between the Mercury missions, which decided people may survive in house, and Apollo, which put the primary individual on the moon. Undertaking Gemini, so-named for its two-person spacecraft (which was, coincidentally, powered by a Titan rocket), was designed to check tools and strategies for preserving astronauts in house for prolonged time forward of Apollo. It flew 10 crews to house and led to vital feats, resembling the first U.S. spacewalk and the first-ever linking of two spacecraft together in Earth orbit.

Undertaking Gemini’s significance to the success of the Apollo program resonated with the group. At one level, Jeff proposed the title “Gemini” in a remark in a Doc the group was engaged on, and it caught. “I used to be instantly offered on the title, as a result of the monumental effort of coaching LLMs resonated with the spirit of launching rockets,” says Oriol Vinyals, Gemini’s co-technical lead. “It was very becoming to call probably the most formidable undertaking we’ve ever launched into as Gemini.”

One large leap for AI fashions

In some ways, AI has the potential to resolve a few of the world’s greatest challenges, with breakthroughs as necessary to humanity as touchdown on the moon. Our Gemini fashions are a vital step ahead, and symbolize how we’ll proceed reaching for these stars safely and responsibly. “Now the query is, will there be a follow-up to Gemini named Apollo?” Oriol provides, with a smile.

Regardless of the future might maintain, Google’s Gemini period is simply starting. In December, we began with Gemini 1.0 in three sizes — Extremely, Professional, and Nano. A number of months later, we launched 1.5 Professional, and yesterday, we announced a new 1.5 model, Flash. “Different concepts mentioned in relation to learn how to title fashions have been with names of stars within the universe, as there are fairly a number of of various sizes, like our fashions,” Oriol says. “One may say that we’re fascinated by the universe in Gemini!”

Since its launch in December, we’ve introduced Gemini to billions of individuals by way of Google merchandise and a whole lot of 1000’s of builders and companies have been constructing with the Gemini API.

“Gemini was born because the analysis program to create probably the most succesful fashions on the earth,” Oriol says. “By making it the title of the product too, I’m hoping our customers really feel the continual enchancment, creativity and innovation that our analysis groups can be bringing on to them.”

We’re no astrologists, nevertheless it’s secure to say Gemini’s future is wanting vivid.