Gemini 1.5 Flash (Preview) Gemini 1.5 Flash (gemini-1.5-flash-preview-0514) is available in Preview

## Announcement **Gemini 1.5 Flash (Preview)** [Gemini 1.5 Flash](https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/multimodal/send-multimodal-prompts) ([gemini-1.5-flash-preview-0514](https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/learn/model-versioning#preview-models)) is available in [Preview](https://cloud.google.com/products?e=13802955&hl=en#product-launch-stages). Gemini 1.5 Flash is a multimodal model designed for fast, high volume, cost-effective text generation and chat applications. It can analyze text, code, audio, PDF, video, and video with audio. ## Feature **Grounding Gemini with Google Search is GA** The Gemini API Grounding with Google Search feature is available in [GA](https://cloud.google.com/products#product-launch-stages). This is available for Gemini 1.0 Pro models. To learn more about model grounding, see [Grounding with Google Search](https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/multimodal/ground-gemini#web-ground-gemini). ## Feature **Batch prediction support for Gemini** Batch prediction is available for Gemini in [preview](https://cloud.google.com/products#product-launch-stages). Available Gemini models include Gemini 1.0 Pro, Gemini 1.5 Pro, and Gemini 1.5 Flash. To get started with batch prediction, see [Get batch predictions for Gemini](https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/multimodal/batch-prediction-gemini). ## Announcement **PaliGemma model** The [PaliGemma](https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/open-models/use-gemma) model is available. PaliGemma is a lightweight open model that's part of the Google Gemma model family. It's the Gemma model family's best model option for image captioning tasks and visual question and answering tasks. Gemma models are based on Gemini models and intended to be extended by customers. ## Feature **New stable text embedding models** The following text embedding models are available [GA](https://cloud.google.com/products#product-launch-stages): * `text-embedding-004` * `text-multilingual-embedding-002` For details on how to use these models, see [Get text embeddings](https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/embeddings/get-text-embeddings). ## Announcement Ray on Vertex AI is now Generally Available and includes the following updates: * Ray version 2.9.3 and Python 3.10 are supported. For information about Ray image support policies, see [Supported versions](https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/docs/supported-frameworks-list#ray). * VPC peering connection is no longer required if you use public endpoints. * Custom images are supported with Ray on Vertex AI. * You can use custom service accounts with Ray on Vertex AI. * A Colab template is not automatically created when you create a Ray Cluster. Instead, you can connect directly to Ray on Vertex AI clusters from [Colab Enterprise's side panel](https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/docs/open-source/ray-on-vertex-ai/develop-application). ## Change For Ray on Vertex AI, Ray version 2.4 is no longer supported. Migrate your code to support Ray 2.9.3 or later and then delete Ray clusters that are running 2.4.