OpenAI has already introduced that it’ll simplify its ChatGPT product roadmap, which has grow to be horribly splintered these days by too many obscure product names for the typical shopper to care about. It’s ditching all its newest mannequin names, akin to o1 and o3, to not point out o3-high, to get behind a easy ChatGPT-followed-by-version-number branding fashion.
I feel it’s time Google {followed} swimsuit with Gemini, and if you wish to know why, simply take a look at this screenshot I took from the Gemini app on my cellphone at this time:
It’s exhausting to take a look at that screenshot and suppose that anyone at Google deliberate it to look that manner; it’s simply the way it’s advanced, with little thought given to the one that has to make use of it.
As a part of the Gemini Superior subscription you get entry to all of Google’s completely different language fashions, nevertheless having to decide on between seven completely different fashions with very comparable names is verging on the ridiculous. To not point out that I feel ‘Google Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental with apps’ may properly win an award for the longest product identify in historical past. What does that imply, anyway?
As a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, you additionally at the moment get entry to an equally baffling variety of completely different LLMs. Some, named issues like o1, are deep reasoning fashions that take some time to actually mull over the questions you ask them, whereas others are smaller and extra light-weight, so that you get faster solutions however much less depth. It’s nearly like Google and OpenAI are competing with one another in how complicated they’ll make their AI instruments.
An excessive amount of selection
I get it; if you’re concerned in educational analysis or want AI that will help you write code, you most likely want entry to quite a lot of completely different LLMs for various duties. But when all you wish to do is get AI that will help you along with your child’s math homework or plan your subsequent street journey, gaining access to such a various number of LLMs is overkill.
OpenAI’s proposed answer is to cool down behind the ChatGPT identify {followed} by a model quantity, so ChatGPT-4, then ChatGPT-5, and so forth. The AI will then take a look at the complexity of what you’re asking and resolve if it wants to make use of a deep reasoning mannequin or an easier LLM. To torture an analogy, most individuals don’t care how the sausage is made; they merely desire a delicious-tasting hotdog.
Google ought to do the identical with its completely different variations of Gemini. For instance, the ‘2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental with apps’ mannequin has the ability to entry issues like YouTube movies, so it could actually reply questions on them or extract the important thing factors from them. Why not simply name it Gemini 2.0, after which, if you happen to ask a query a few YouTube video, change to the related LLM with out having to get the person to decide on it first?
Have a look at Apple
What we wish is AI that simply works, with easy naming conventions. In the event you take a look at the best way Apple manufacturers its merchandise, it usually has as much as three variations of a product with a easy identify indicating the variations. It has two variations of its MacBook – the MacBook Air and MacBook Professional – and its newest iPhone – iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Professional – that’s good and easy.
We’re nonetheless proper firstly of the AI revolution, and issues are altering quickly, and the buyer expertise is usually left as an afterthought. As OpenAI’s choice to simplify its branding exhibits, that state of affairs is beginning to change. I feel we are able to anticipate the expertise of utilizing AI to get rather a lot slicker this yr, let’s simply hope that Google get the memo, too.
