Gemini by Google has become the leader in the AI race

Every great success and triumphant journey begins with hardship, trials, and relentless effort. When one of the leading brands in the world of artificial intelligence, the Gemini chatbot, took its first steps, it seemed to be overshadowed by failure. However, time has spoken as the ultimate judge: today, with the extreme elegance, high precision, and speed of the information it provides, it is surpassing its main rival, ChatGPT. This indicates that in the near future, this system will become the closest and most constant digital companion for every internet user.

Just two years ago, a dangerous and powerful competitor appeared in the global technological landscape, casting a cloud of doubt over the future of Google, which had been considered the king of the internet for many years. In an effort to catch up with the product of OpenAI, which had turned the entire tech world upside down, the search giant urgently placed an immature, raw version of its AI on its homepage. But the price of haste was high: the system calmly recommended nonsensical advice to users, such as eating rocks for health or spreading chemical glue on pizza, making its owners look awkward and ridiculous to the whole world.

At that time, many analysts concluded that Google was spending the final days of its long-standing dominance on the internet.

But today, the landscape has changed fundamentally. In the great race for artificial intelligence, Google is not just a simple pursuer, but is emerging as an absolute leader that completely overwhelms its rivals. This is the best example of how the situation in Silicon Valley can turn 180 degrees in just a few months.

Recently, at the traditional Google I/O major conference, the company's leadership revealed groundbreaking news: in just one year, the army of active users of the Gemini chatbot has more than doubled, reaching 900 million people. This figure means it has equaled the number of active users of OpenAI's boasted ChatGPT and is almost 30 times higher than the traffic of the Claude chatbot from Anthropic, which mainly serves large businesses and corporations.

Billions in revenue through online advertising

Unlike Anthropic and OpenAI, which continue to spend massive amounts of money to maintain AI algorithms and data centers, still operating at a loss or minimal profit, Google has found a clever way to turn its technology into pure profit. The company skillfully applied this system to its main source of income — online advertising. According to the latest quarterly reports, the search giant's net profit from advertising rose by 16 percent, reaching 77 billion dollars. The chief architect of this success is the artificial intelligence that identifies consumers' hidden interests for marketers.

In the coming days, Gemini will enter the inner territory of its biggest competitor — the ecosystem of Apple's iPhone devices. According to an agreement finalized earlier this year, the Gemini system will serve as the foundation for a new and intellectual version of the Siri voice assistant on Apple smartphones. Considering that this technology is already systematically installed on billions of Android devices worldwide, the partnership with Apple gives it the ability to control and capture almost all phones on the planet.

Furthermore, at the Google I/O presentation, new AI-based shopping carts and special promotion features were announced to drastically increase sales in online stores. Additionally, the ability to create personalized articles and texts tailored to each individual's preferences in the Google Docs text document system has been further expanded.

"If you asked me today who the real winner of the artificial intelligence revolution will be, I would choose Google without hesitation. Yet, if you had asked me the same question a year and a half ago, my answer would have been completely different, and I wouldn't even have mentioned them," says Gary Rivlin, a former New York Times columnist and author of a book on economic wars in the field of AI.

Lessons from history: Microsoft's mistake will not be repeated

This victory achieved by Google through the Gemini project showed how quickly industry giants can transform to maintain their leadership when threatened. Yet, history is full of leaders who could not withstand such a crisis.

For example, 15 years ago, when the iPhone ecosystem was created by Apple and Android by Google, Microsoft, relying on its dominance in the PC market, missed the momentum of the times. The Windows Phone operating system they created and the acquisition of the legendary Nokia brand could not save them from disaster in the mobile technology race. As a result, Microsoft completely lost its popularity among ordinary users.

Google, however, did not repeat that mistake. Instead of just developing Gemini as a separate app, they connected it to all the popular services at their disposal. At the moment, several of the company's major scientific teams are working simultaneously on integrating the neural network into Gmail, Google Maps, and separate independent programs.

Also, Google's artificial intelligence has an absolute advantage in the travel sector that none of its competitors possess. Gemini is the only chatbot with direct access to and the right to analyze the world's largest systems: Google Flights (airline ticket search) and Google Hotels (hotel database). This capability makes it the most perfect, fast, and free personal virtual travel agent in the world.

"It's not just about how smart and perfect the AI model is. Where it is located in the digital space and how easy it is for ordinary people to start using it and benefit from it is of great importance," assesses Carolina Milanesi, head of the research firm Creative Strategies.

The sole ruler of the future

The company used all its administrative and technical resources to popularize its technology. They turned the block of ready-made answers provided by artificial intelligence into an essential and integral part of the world's most visited website — Google.com platform. Notably, users were not even given the option to disable this feature through settings.

The same error-prone Gemini that once recommended people eat rocks has today turned into an unrecognizable, smart, and wise figure. True, it is still a bit early to call it completely error-free. According to independent expertise recently conducted by The Times, the answers provided by Google's AI were found to be completely correct and well-founded in 90 percent of cases. The company itself claims that this figure is actually much higher.

In conclusion, Google today possesses such global reach and massive infrastructure that no competitor in the world has such power. "So, if you ask who the next powerful Google will be in the age of artificial intelligence, most likely it will remain Google itself," concluded expert Gary Rivlin.

Do you think the deep integration of the Google Gemini system into all smartphones and applications will weaken human thinking ability and make us completely dependent on AI in the future?