Island of Lost Bots Google’s AI chatbot, Bard, has officially been sent upstate, to the Big Tech sunsetted product farm. Just a few short months after rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT was released into public hands — reportedly prompting a “code red” to be issued within a nonplussed Google — Bard launched in early 2023. The two competing chatbots are effectively the same thing. But while they might be comparable in ability, ChatGPT handily has more name recognition among the public than Bard ever did. Now, less than a year after Bard’s release, Google appears determined to change that. As of today, Google has rebranded its AI product suite — Bard included — under one name: Gemini, the name of the advanced large language model (LLM) that powers the search giant’s generative AI ambitions. “Our mission with Bard has always been to give you direct access to our AI models, and Gemini represents our most capable family of models,” Google Vice President and Gemini general manager Sissie Hsiao stated in a company blog post, published earlier today. “To reflect this, Bard will now simply be known as Gemini.” RIP In addition to the name alteration, Google made another big — and directly competitive — change to Bard: it introduced a payment tier. Users can now cough up $19.99 each month to access “Gemini Advanced,” a version of the chatbot powered by Ultra 1.0, described by Google in a blog post as the “largest and most capable” Gemini model. If that sounds familiar, it’s…Google Renames Its Forgettable AI in Fight to Stay Relevant