Google announces Gemini 4 Argon AI model after months of delays, restricts access over safety concerns
Alphabet’s Google on Wednesday announced a new top-tier artificial intelligence (AI) model, “Argon”, to anchor its Gemini 4 generation of models in a fresh bid to catch up to rivals Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI race. However, Google said it would withhold the model from the public for now, releasing Gemini 4 Argon only to a vetted group of cybersecurity experts to avoid misuse by hackers. “Safely releasing frontier capabilities at this level requires a phased approach,” wrote Koray Kavukcuoglu, Google’s chief AI architect, in a blog post announcing the model. The new model is larger in size than Google’s previous line of advanced “Pro” models, a company spokesperson said. “It’s our most performant model yet built for complex workloads, and we see it comparable to frontier models like (OpenAI’s) Astra and (Anthropic’s) Opus on key coding and cyber benchmarks,” the spokesperson said. Google said it was providing the model to select cybersecurity partners and was participating in the Trump administration’s voluntary process for pre-release model access. It did not provide a timeline for the model’s public release. The model posted better marks than OpenAI’s Astra and Anthropic’s Opus in terms of self-reported performance on several industry benchmarks, per a company press release. Still, Argon remained behind on certain other metrics, including two of the four coding-related benchmarks Google included in the release. Google no longer plans to release Gemini 3.5 Pro , which CEO Sundar Pichai originally said would be released in June, according to the company spokesperson. In the intervening time, Google overhauled its DeepMind AI lab, with its founder and CEO Demis Hassabis stepping aside and several leaders of its Gemini model leaving the company. The months of delays to its AI model have caused the company to fall behind Anthropic and OpenAI, which continued to push the research frontier with new releases to its top models. Pichai in July pushed back on the notion that Google was losing ground in the AI race. But Google in recent months has shifted its messaging from touting Gemini’s cutting-edge capabilities to highlighting its cost advantage compared to competitor models.
Alphabet’s Google on Wednesday announced a new top-tier artificial intelligence (AI) model, “Argon”, to anchor its Gemini 4 generation of models in a fresh bid to catch up to rivals Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI race.
However, Google said it would withhold the model from the public for now, releasing Gemini 4 Argon only to a vetted group of cybersecurity experts to avoid misuse by hackers.
“Safely releasing frontier capabilities at this level requires a phased approach,” wrote Koray Kavukcuoglu, Google’s chief AI architect, in a blog post announcing the model.
The new model is larger in size than Google’s previous line of advanced “Pro” models, a company spokesperson said.
“It’s our most performant model yet built for complex workloads, and we see it comparable to frontier models like (OpenAI’s) Astra and (Anthropic’s) Opus on key coding and cyber benchmarks,” the spokesperson said.
Google said it was providing the model to select cybersecurity partners and was participating in the Trump administration’s voluntary process for pre-release model access. It did not provide a timeline for the model’s public release.
The model posted better marks than OpenAI’s Astra and Anthropic’s Opus in terms of self-reported performance on several industry benchmarks, per a company press release.
Still, Argon remained behind on certain other metrics, including two of the four coding-related benchmarks Google included in the release.
Google no longer plans to release Gemini 3.5 Pro , which CEO Sundar Pichai originally said would be released in June, according to the company spokesperson.
In the intervening time, Google overhauled its DeepMind AI lab, with its founder and CEO Demis Hassabis stepping aside and several leaders of its Gemini model leaving the company.
The months of delays to its AI model have caused the company to fall behind Anthropic and OpenAI, which continued to push the research frontier with new releases to its top models.
Pichai in July pushed back on the notion that Google was losing ground in the AI race.
But Google in recent months has shifted its messaging from touting Gemini’s cutting-edge capabilities to highlighting its cost advantage compared to competitor models.