Google launched an AI model aimed at Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek on the 5th (local time).
Google announced on the same day that it will unveil its latest AI model range, Gemini 2.0 (hereinafter referred to as 2.0), to all users.
‘2.0’ is the latest AI model released in December last year and has been provided only to some developers and test program subjects.
The ‘2.0’ product line released this time includes 2.0 Flash optimized for large-scale repetitive tasks, 2.0 Pro Experimental focused on coding performance, and 2.0 Flash-Lite.
The 2.0 Flash is installed on the Gemini app and available to anyone, while the other two models are provided in preview form through Google AI Studio, an AI tool for developers, and Vertex AI, a platform for companies.
Google said last year that ‘2.0’ boasts the best performance of AI models ever introduced, adding that it is an optimized model for the era of AI agents in addition to multi-modal types with text, image and video functions.
The “Flash” model is a lightweight version of the pro model among the Gemini product lines based on the size of parameters such as Ultra, Pro, and Nano. It was introduced in 1.5 versions last year.
Google, in particular, called the 2.0 Flashlight the “most cost-effective model” with a lighter version than Flash.
This seems to be aimed at DeepSeek’s AI models such as V3 and R1.
DeepSeek recently surprised the U.S. tech industry, which is investing heavily in AI model development, by unveiling these low-cost, high-performance models. Users’ costs increase as much as the amount of investment in AI model development.
“We developed Flashlight after receiving positive feedback on the Flash 1.5 version,” said Coray Kabukuoglu, chief technology officer at Google DeepMind.
According to Reuters, the 2.0 Flashlight costs $0.19 per million token (a unit of data processed by the AI model) based on input. This is similar to DeepSeek’s AI model, which costs $0.014.
It is also cheaper than the typical cost-effective version ($0.075) of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, the news agency explained.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
