Google is launching its generative AI app Gemini in the UK and Europe, following its US release earlier this year, as a number of chatbots are still facing teething issues.
Gemini is free to download on Google’s Play Store from today while Apple users will be able to access it from the Google app over the next couple of weeks.
Jules Walter, group product manager for Gemini experiences at Google, said: “We remain dedicated to making Gemini available to as many people as possible.
“By expanding our language support and reaching new countries, we’re ensuring more people can supercharge their ideas with Gemini.”
It is another stride forwards for Google in the race against other tech giants for AI dominance and it is also progress towards a full AI-powered replacement of the default Google Assistant.
“With the Gemini app on your phone, you can type, talk or add an image for all kinds of help,” explained Walter, “you can take a picture of your flat tyre and ask for instructions on how to change it, or get help writing that thank you note.
“It’s an important first step in building a true AI assistant — one that is conversational, multimodal and helpful,” he added.
It comes as a number of other major chatbots including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude have faced outages for a prolonged period of time over the past day. Google’s Gemini may have also briefly gone offline, according to some user reports.
The system failures may be due to traffic overload, bugs or broader infrastructure issues. ChatGPT’s landing page still says it is “at capacity right now”, as of midday on Wednesday.
Tech companies have come under fire for other issues with their AI products recently too.
Last month, OpenAI was forced to remove its new ChatGPT voice after actress Scarlett Johansson said she was “shocked, angered and in disbelief” to hear the voice, which she claimed sounded “eerily similar” to her own. She had previously refused to grant permission to the company to use her voice.
In February, Google said Gemini was “missing the mark” and apologised after its image generation tool supplied historically inaccurate images depicting the wrong genders and ethnicities.