Imagine you’re trying to plan a trip to Hawaii. You’ve got a few pictures of beautiful beaches, a list of things you want to see, and a rough budget in mind. How do you pull it all together? You might browse travel blogs, compare prices, and even watch videos of the islands. You’re using different kinds of information – pictures, text, and video – to make sense of your trip.

That’s exactly what Gemini, Google’s latest AI, is capable of doing. It can process and understand information from different sources – text, code, images, audio, and video – and use that understanding to reason and generate creative outputs. It’s like having a super-powered travel agent that can help you plan the perfect trip based on all your preferences!

Why is this a big deal?

Most AI models today are designed to excel in a single domain. A text-based AI might be amazing at writing poems, but it might struggle to understand a picture. A vision AI could recognize objects in an image but wouldn’t be able to write a summary of what’s happening.

Gemini is different. It can understand and process information from all these different domains, making it a truly multimodal AI. This opens up a world of possibilities, as we can now use AI for tasks that require complex reasoning and understanding of multiple information sources.

How does Gemini work?

Think of Gemini as a brain that can understand and process information from all kinds of sources. It uses a combination of different AI techniques, including:

This means Gemini can do things that were previously impossible for AI. It can:

  1. Summarize a video based on its content and visuals.
  2. Write a creative story inspired by an image and a piece of music.
  3. Generate code based on a natural language description.
  4. Translate text from one language to another while preserving the meaning and context.

Let’s dive into some code samples:

1. Summarizing an image with text

Let’s say we want to describe a picture of a beautiful beach sunset. With Gemini, we can ask:

from vertexai.generative_models import GenerativeModel

model = GenerativeModel("gemini-1.0-pro-001")

response = model.generate_content(
prompt="Describe the image: <IMAGE_URL>",
temperature=0.7,
max_output_tokens=100,
)

print(response.text)

You would replace <IMAGE_URL> with the actual URL of the image. This code snippet utilizes the Vertex AI Gemini model, leveraging its multimodal capabilities to generate a text description of the image based on its content.

This could produce a text like: “The image shows a stunning sunset over a serene beach. The sky is painted in vibrant shades of orange, pink, and purple, reflecting beautifully on the calm ocean waves. Palm trees sway gently in the breeze, creating a sense of tranquility and peace.”

2. Generating code from a text description

Imagine we want to build a simple calculator application. We can tell Gemini what we want and it will write the code for us:

from vertexai.generative_models import GenerativeModel

model = GenerativeModel("gemini-1.0-pro-001")

response = model.generate_content(
prompt="Write a Python program that takes two numbers as input and prints their sum.",
temperature=0.7,
max_output_tokens=100,
)

print(response.text)

This code uses the Vertex AI Gemini model to generate Python code based on a natural language description.


This shows how Gemini can be used to bridge the gap between natural language and code, making programming more accessible for everyone.


The future of AI is multimodal

Gemini is a glimpse into the future of AI, where machines can understand and process information from multiple sources just like humans do. It has the potential to revolutionize countless industries, from healthcare to education to entertainment.

Imagine a doctor using Gemini to diagnose patients by analyzing their symptoms, medical history, and even images from scans. Or a teacher using Gemini to create personalized learning experiences for each student, tailoring the curriculum based on their individual needs and learning style. The possibilities are truly endless.

As Gemini and other multimodal AI models continue to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative applications that improve our lives and transform the way we interact with technology.

The future of AI is multimodal, and the journey has just begun!