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CheckMag | Last week in Gemini Updates: OpenStax partnership, Gems, and more

Gem Manager (Image Source: Google)
Gem Manager (Image Source: Google)
Google's Gemini AI received many improvements over the past week, including some premium features available to users of Gemini Advanced and Google Workspaces. With features focused on education and business, it is clear that Google will continue to saturate every aspect of its cloud services with a hefty dose of Gemini AI.

The week began with the 08.26 update that changed Gemini for Google Workspaces subscribers. Users can now upload various document formats, including PDFs, CSVs, etc, to Gemini and have Gemini perform data analysis on the documents. Google claims that this feature can help businesses "elevate research and writing tasks" and help identify trends found in the documents. Gemini will also be able to create "presentation-ready" charts based on the information found in the documents. Additionally, Gemini for Android continues to be updated to support more devices and is marketed as a definitive replacement for the Google Assistant. 

The biggest release came with the 08.28 update, introducing Gems to Gemini Advanced and Google Workspace subscribers. Like all other promises of AI, Gems help users automate repetitive tasks and streamline workflows. Gems must also be trained on specific prompts or tasks to become experts. Google hopes that this will inspire "more creative collaboration with Gemini." Gemini had this to say about how well businesses will adopt Gems: "As of now, it's difficult to provide a definitive answer on the widespread adoption of Gemini Gems by businesses. While Google has released them to advanced and workspace subscribers, the full impact and uptake are still unfolding."

Google announced a partnership with OpenStax in the 08.29 update to bring interactive study tools to Gemini. New interactive quizzes are available to users with information from Rice University's OpenStax educational resources. The quizzes will feature feedback, hints, and links to the related information in OpenStax's free textbook library. Uncoincidentally, Google used this update as an opportunity to mention changes in data protection for users of Google Workspace for Education. The added protection ensures that data from education workspaces is not human-reviewed or used to train AI models. The post provides specific reassurance that "Education leaders, staff and students 18 years and older can now chat with Gemini - free of charge - knowing their data is not being used to train AI models."

Finally, the week rounded out with the 08.30 update, which brought enhancements to Gemini responses. Due to latency improvements, responses on the Gemini 1.5 Flash model are now up to fifty percent faster. 

Additional details and previous updates are available in the changelog below. 

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2024 09 > Last week in Gemini Updates: OpenStax partnership, Gems, and more
Stephen Pereyra, 2024-09- 2 (Update: 2024-09- 2)