Google wakes up: Gemini 2.0 et al
Google DeepMind launched Gemini 2.0 Flash, a new multimodal model outperforming Gemini 1.5 Pro and o1-preview, featuring vision and voice APIs, multilingual capabilities, and native tool use. It powers new AI agents like Project Astra and Project Mariner, with Project Mariner achieving state-of-the-art 83.5% on the WebVoyager benchmark. OpenAI announced ChatGPT integration with Apple devices, enabling Siri access and visual intelligence features. Claude 3.5 Sonnet is noted as a distilled version of Opus. The AI community's response at NeurIPS 2024 has been overwhelmingly positive, signaling a strong comeback for Google in AI innovation. Key topics include multimodality, agent development, multilinguality, benchmarking, and model releases.