Google DeepMind has released three new Gemini models — 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite and 3.5 Flash Cyber — but has again held back the long-awaited update to its flagship Gemini Pro model. The launch is notable largely for what was missing, since rivals OpenAI and Anthropic have been shipping new flagship models at a rapid pace in recent months, putting pressure on Google to keep up in the increasingly competitive AI race.

Gemini 3.6 Flash is billed as Google's "workhorse model", offering improved coding, knowledge work and multimodal performance while cutting token usage by up to 17%, making it cheaper than its predecessor. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the cheapest model in the line-up, while 3.5 Flash Cyber is tuned specifically for finding and fixing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and will only be available to governments and trusted partners under a limited pilot. Gemini Pro, last updated in February, has reportedly been delayed by internal performance issues, according to Bloomberg; Google product lead Logan Kilpatrick said 3.5 Pro is being tested with partners and should "land soon", adding that the company has also begun its most ambitious pre-training run yet for Gemini 4.