Google Gemini surpasses ChatGPT, topping the Apple App Store

Google has been striving to catch up with OpenAI's leading position in the field of generative artificial intelligence. It now seems that it has finally begun to make progress in user expansion. This week, Google's Gemini app topped the free app rankings on the Apple App Store, surpassing ChatGPT, which ignited the generative AI craze nearly three years ago. Google's Gemini AI model recently underwent some updates, attracting a large number of new users. Last month, Google launched an upgraded version of the "Flash" AI model—2.5 Flash Image, which introduced a new image editing feature called Nano Banana. This app allows users to merge multiple photos together and generate content through prompts, such as creating digital dolls from uploaded photos. According to a post on social media last week by Josh Woodward, head of the Gemini app, this product brought 13 million new users to the Gemini app. Users have uploaded 500 million images to the Gemini app. Woodward mentioned in another post that due to overwhelming demand, their team had to set temporary usage limits over the weekend. As of July, the last time the company disclosed data, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated in the company's second-quarter earnings report that the Gemini app's monthly active users had exceeded 450 million. Google's improved performance in the consumer AI sector has also attracted the attention of investors. On Monday, Google's parent company Alphabet became the fourth member of the $3 trillion market cap club, joining Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple. Alphabet's stock price has risen 33% this year, compared to a 16% increase in the Nasdaq index during the same period. Earlier this month, Google also benefited from a favorable antitrust ruling that allowed it to retain its Chrome browser