Google’s next major AI model has arrived to combat a slew of new offerings from OpenAI. On Wednesday, Google announced Gemini 2.0 Flash, which the company says can natively generate images and audio in addition to text. 2.0 Flash can also use third-party apps and services, allowing it to tap into Google Search, execute code, and more. An experimental release of 2.0 Flash will be available through the Gemini API and Google’s AI developer platforms, AI Studio and Vertex AI, starting today. However, the audio and image generation capabilities are launching only for “early access partners” ahead of a wide rollout in January. In the coming months, Google says that it’ll bring 2.0 Flash in a range of flavors to products like Android Studio, Chrome DevTools, Firebase, Gemini Code Assist, and others. The first-gen Flash, 1.5 Flash, could generate only text, and wasn’t designed for especially demanding workloads. This new model is more versatile, Google says, in part because it can call tools like Search and interact with external APIs.

Full report : Google releases Gemini 2.0 Flash to generate images, audio, and text, and use third-party apps and services, available via Gemini API and developer platforms.