The AI arms race continues as Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) makes its latest play: an upgrade to the latest model of Gemini. Or perhaps, the latest models, as the new model comes in three different sizes. It seems to be a powerful system, but how powerful remains a somewhat unanswered question. Investors, meanwhile, are less than blown away, as Alphabet shares are down fractionally in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
The newest version of Gemini comes in three different flavors: Gemini Ultra, which is the biggest and most powerful of the three, said to be sufficiently powerful to be able to solve problems and “understand nuance and reasoning.” Second, there’s Gemini Pro, which is a slightly downscaled version that’s good for a wide range of general purposes. Finally, there’s Gemini Nano, which is geared toward mobile devices and highly specific tasks. Gemini will be available to be licensed through Google Cloud starting December 13, though most of it will be for developers, along with other large-scale users, at this point.
How Does Gemini Stack Up Against Competition?
Granted, Gemini Ultra looks like it has plenty of horsepower under the hood, but it’s hard to shake that obvious question: how does it fare against the competition? Reports noted that Alphabet representatives were confident it could take on GPT 3.5 but weren’t quite clear on whether or not it could do the same against GPT 4.
That suggests a problem; if it could readily beat GPT 4, that would likely have been a clearer announcement as it would have been a major selling point. But without that surety, it’s enough to wonder if Gemini Ultra can stack up. Alphabet brass noted that they were “substantially ahead on 30 out of 32” benchmarks, though just how far apart they varied.
Is Alphabet Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on GOOG stock based on four Buys and one Hold assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 38.77% rally in its share price over the past year, the average GOOG price target of $152 per share implies 15.17% upside potential.
