Alphabet (GOOGL 5.32%) (GOOG 5.34%) shares got a boost today in the wake of its latest product announcement yesterday, the debut of Gemini AI. The news was generally well received by investors, and today, Wall Street is weighing in. Let’s take a look at what the company revealed, what analysts are saying, and what it means for investors.
advance over, ChatGPT, there’s a new sheriff in town
ChatGPT took the world by storm late last year, revealing the vast potential represented by generative artificial intelligence (AI). Yesterday, Alphabet unveiled Gemini AI, calling it the company’s “largest and most capable AI model.” Google says its latest entry is far more capable than GPT-4, the large language model that underpins OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
In fact, Google says Gemini boasts five times the computational power of its rival. The AI model was tested on a variety of tasks, including natural image, audio and video understanding, and mathematical reasoning, “exceeding current state-of-the-art results on 30 of the 32 widely used academic benchmarks used in large language model (LLM) research and development.” It scored 90% when tested using massive multitask language understanding (MMLU) — one of the most prevalent methods for testing the problem-solving capabilities of AI. As a result, it is the first generative AI model ever to outperform human experts measured using this benchmark, according to Google.
Gemini will be available in three models: Gemini Ultra, the largest and most capable model for highly complex tasks; Gemini Pro, the best-performing model for a broad range of tasks; and Gemini Nano, the most efficient model for on-device tasks.
What does this mean for the stock?
Wall Street and the tech world were equally excited about the release of Gemini. “Google’s Gemini is the real start to the generative AI boom,” claims tech publication Wired.
Investment bank Roth MKM maintained its buy rating on Alphabet and raised its price target $166, suggesting potential upside for investors of 27% compared to Wednesday’s closing price. He noted that any remaining “negative AI sentiment toward Alphabet is expected to fade quickly” after the release of Gemini. At the same time, Bank of America analysts suggested it will “alleviate concerns regarding AI capabilities and AI disruption impact.”
Alphabet has long been at the forefront of AI development, and Gemini is merely the next step in its evolution. I would argue that Alphabet stock was already a buy. Gemini merely confirms it.
Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Bank of America is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Danny Vena has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Bank of America. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
