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Google's New Gemini AI Model and Tools Are All About Agents Now

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Why This Matters

Google's new Gemini AI models mark a significant advancement in autonomous AI agents, offering faster, more efficient, and versatile tools that can handle complex, long-term tasks. This development positions Google as a strong competitor in the AI arms race, with potential impacts on how consumers and industries utilize AI-powered assistants and automation. The focus on agentic capabilities signals a shift towards more autonomous, persistent AI systems that can operate continuously and independently.

Key Takeaways

Google's got a new Gemini AI model, and it's built to be agentic. The company debuted Gemini 3.5 Flash Tuesday at its Google I/O annual developers conference, with a more powerful Gemini 3.5 Pro expected next month.

Google says its new AI models are comparable with other frontier and near-frontier models -- like OpenAI's GPT-5.5 or Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.7 -- but also focused on being faster and better capable of handling tasks for you.

You'll be able to use those models in lots of different ways, including an OpenClaw-like 24/7 agentic assistant and an upgraded Antigravity coding platform. Here's what's coming in Gemini from Google I/O.

A new pair of Gemini models

The first new model, Gemini 3.5 Flash, rolls out to all users starting now. Google CEO Sundar Pichai told reporters during a briefing ahead of I/O that the model is "an incredible delight to use" and a "game changer" internally at Google. It's trained to operate quickly and accomplishes tasks at about half the cost of competitor models, he said.

Gemini 3.5 Flash is particularly good at running agents -- autonomous AI instances that can handle particular tasks. That includes operating multiple agents at the same time to tackle larger, long-term projects. Koray Kavukcuoglu, CTO of Google DeepMind and Google's chief AI architect, said it can handle sessions lasting multiple hours on its own, completing whole coding research projects.

Still to come is Gemini 3.5 Pro, which Pichai said Google has been testing internally.

Spark: A 24/7 AI assistant

In what looks like a challenger to OpenClaw, the autonomous AI agent platform that blew up at the start of the year, Google is preparing an assistant called Gemini Spark. Josh Woodward, vice president for Google Labs, the Gemini app and AI Studio, said the company is releasing Spark "deliberately," with a group of trusted users getting access this week, followed by a beta for AI Ultra subscribers next week.

Spark is an always-on AI agent that can act on your behalf and follow directions. It's based in Google's cloud -- so no need to buy one of those fast-disappearing Mac Minis to run OpenClaw -- and can perform tasks in Workspace apps like Gmail and Docs.

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