Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.
ZDNET's key takeaways
Google unveiled Gemini 3 Flash on Wednesday.
It's the default model in AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app.
It outperformed Gemini 3 Pro on agentic coding.
Google has unveiled Gemini 3 Flash, the company's latest AI model, which it says balances speed with industry-leading reasoning and multimodal capabilities.
Along with its global release, Gemini 3 Flash has also been made the default model in both Google Search, the Gemini app, and AI Mode. That's significant, since in the earlier days of the AI race, companies -- even the more powerful ones like Google -- would tend to roll out new AI tools slowly and cautiously, getting a sense of user feedback before adding them to their most popular and widely used services.
Also: Inside the making of Gemini 3 - how Google's slow and steady approach won the AI race (for now)
Last month, Google embedded the recently arrived Gemini 3 into Search; then, as now, the decision to move quickly and upgrade the company's cornerstone products with a brand new model points strongly to a strong sense of confidence within the company as it steps up its competition with OpenAI and other developers.
"For too long, AI forced a choice: big models that were slow and expensive, or high-speed models that were less capable," Josh Woodward, VP of Google Labs and Gemini, wrote in a blog post published Wednesday. "Gemini 3 Flash ends this compromise. Gemini 3 Flash delivers smarts and speed."
... continue reading