Reuters Alphabet shares ended 5.3 higher on Thursday as Wall Street cheered the launch of Gemini, saying the new artificial intelligence model could help narrow the gap in a race with Microsoftbacked OpenAI.

Long considered a leader in AI research, Alphabet lost the spotlight when OpenAI39;s ChatGPT swept the tech landscape upon its launch in November last year and allowed Microsoft to aggressively roll out AIpowered software to businesses.

Now, Gemini looks poised to boost Alphabet39;s AI heft again.

The Google parent said the muchawaited AI system was faster than OpenAI39;s latest model and can process different forms of media such as video, audio and text. It comes in three versions, each designed to use a different amount of processing power.

Google is beginning to address investor concerns around generative AI innovation and the high cost of running GenAI models through the combination of Gemini39;s different model sizes, J.P. Morgan analysts said.

The company added over 80 billion to its market value. The warm reception contrasted with the nearly 100 billion selloff in Alphabet in February after its Bard chatbot shared inaccurate information in a promotional video and a company event failed to impress.

Gemini39;s release comes at an interesting point in time when OpenAIChatGPT users have been complaining about how updates to the GPT model family have potentially impacted the quality of its output, Macquarie analysts wrote in a note.

If Google is shipping a…