Google has introduced Gemini 3 is its smartest artificial intelligence model yet with cutting-edge logic, multimedia and coding skills. As talk of an AI bubble grows, the company is keen to emphasize that its latest release is more than just a clever model and chatbot – it’s a way to improve Google’s existing products, including its lucrative search business, starting today.
“We are Google’s engine room, and we’re plugging AI in everywhere now,” Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, the AI-focused subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, told WIRED in an interview ahead of the announcement.
Hassabis believes the AI market appears overgrown, with many unproven startups receiving billion-dollar valuations. Google and other AI companies are also investing billions in building new data centers to train and run AI models, raising fears of a potential crash.
But even if the AI bubble bursts, Hassabis thinks Google is untouched. The company is already using AI to enhance products like Google Maps, Gmail, and Search. “In a downside scenario, we will be more dependent on that,” says Hassabis. “In the opposite scenario, I think we’ve got the broadest portfolio and the most cutting-edge research.”
Google is also using AI to create popular new tools like NotebookLM, which can automatically generate podcasts from written content, and AI Studio which can prototype applications with AI. It is also exploring incorporating technology in areas such as gaming and robotics, which Hassabis says could yield huge dividends in the coming years, regardless of what happens in the broader market.
Google is making Gemini 3 available today in the Gemini app and AI Overviews, a Google Search feature that synthesizes information with regular search results. In the demo, the company showed that certain Google queries, such as a request for information about the three-body problem in physics, would prompt Gemini 3 to instantly generate a custom interactive visualization.
Robbie Stein, vice president of product for Google Search, said in a briefing ahead of the launch that the company has seen “double-digit” growth in queries phrased in natural language that are targeted at AI overviews year over year. The company has also seen a 70 percent increase in visual searches, which rely on Gemini’s ability to analyze photos.
Despite investing heavily in AI and making significant breakthroughs, including inventing the Transformer model that powers most large language models, Google was shaken by the sudden rise of ChatGPT in 2022. Chatbots not only brought 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.