Gemini 3 Is Here—and Google Says It Will Make Search Smarter

Google has introduced Gemini 3, its smartest artificial intelligence model to date, with cutting-edge reasoning, multimedia, and coding skills. As talk of an AI bubble grows, the company is keen to stress that its latest release is more than just a clever model and chatbot—it’s a way of improving Google’s existing products, including its lucrative search business, starting today.

“We are the engine room of Google, and we're plugging in AI everywhere now,” Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, an AI-focused subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, told WIRED in an interview ahead of the announcement.

Hassabis admits that the AI market appears inflated, with a number of unproven startups receiving multibillion-dollar valuations. Google and other AI firms are also investing billions in building out new data centers to train and run AI models, sparking fears of a potential crash.

But even if the AI bubble bursts, Hassabis thinks Google is insulated. The company is already using AI to enhance products like Google Maps, Gmail, and Search. “In the downside scenario, we will lean more on that,” Hassabis says. “In the upside scenario, I think we've got the broadest portfolio and the most pioneering research.”

Google is also using AI to build popular new tools like NotebookLM, which can auto-generate podcasts from written materials, and AI Studio which can prototype applications with AI. It’s even exploring embedding the technology into areas like gaming and robotics, which Hassabis says could pay huge dividends in years to come, regardless of what happens in the wider market.

Google is making Gemini 3 available today through the Gemini app and in AI Mode, a Google Search feature that synthesizes information alongside regular search results. In demos, the company showed that some Google queries, like a request for information about the three-body problem in physics, will prompt Gemini 3 to automatically generate a custom interactive visualization on the fly.

Robby Stein, vice president of product for Google Search, said at a briefing ahead of the launch that the company has seen “double-digit” increases in queries phrased in natural language, which are most likely targeted at AI Overviews, year over year. The company has also seen a 70 percent spike in visual search, which relies on Gemini’s ability to analyze photos.

Despite investing heavily in AI and making key breakthroughs, including inventing the transformer model that powers most large language models, Google was shaken by the sudden rise of ChatGPT in 2022. The chatbot not only vaulted OpenAI to center stage when it came to AI research; it also challenged Google’s core business by offering a new and potentially easier way to search the web.