Google announces Gemini 2.0 Flash

Google on Wednesday announced Gemini 2.0 Flash, which can natively generate images and audio in addition to text.

Gemini 2.0 Flash can also use third-party apps and services, allowing it to tap into Google Search, execute code, and more, the company said.

An experimental release of 2.0 Flash will be available through the Gemini API and Google's artificial intelligence (AI) developer platforms, AI Studio and Vertex AI, starting Wednesday. The audio and image generation capabilities are launching only for "early access partners" ahead of a wide rollout in January, according to the company.

The first-generation Flash, 1.5 Flash, could generate only text. This new model is more versatile in part because it can call tools like Search and interact with external application programming interfaces, Google said.

Google claimed that 2.0 Flash, which is twice as fast as the company's Gemini 1.5 Pro model on certain benchmarks, per Google's own testing, is "significantly" improved in areas like coding and image analysis.

Google said it's using its SynthID technology to watermark all audio and images generated by 2.0 Flash. On software and platforms that support SynthID, the model's outputs will be flagged as synthetic.