one year on
Google debuts Gemini 2.0 Flash, at twice the speed of 1.5 Pro, and unveils agentic research prototypes
The new model is Google's opening bid for an 'agentic era' where AI models use tools, browse the web, and act on a user's behalf.
Google today released the first model in its Gemini 2.0 family, an experimental version of Gemini 2.0 Flash, positioning it as a model for what the company calls the “agentic era.” The model is available now to users via a chat interface and to developers through Google AI Studio and Vertex AI, with general availability expected in January.
Gemini 2.0 Flash outperforms the previous 1.5 Pro on key benchmarks while running at twice the speed, Google said. It supports native outputs including images, steerable text-to-speech audio, and native tool use such as Google Search and code execution. The company also released a Multimodal Live API for real-time audio and video interactions.
Alongside the model, Google showcased three agentic research prototypes: Project Astra, an updated universal assistant with improved memory and tool use; Project Mariner, a Chrome extension that can navigate web pages and complete tasks, scoring 83.5% on the WebVoyager benchmark; and Jules, a coding agent that integrates with GitHub workflows. The company emphasized that these are early experiments, with safety measures including human confirmation for sensitive actions and research into prompt injection prevention.
CEO Sundar Pichai framed the release as a shift from organizing information to making it useful, while DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis called it a milestone toward building AGI. The announcement follows Pichai’s public challenge to Microsoft’s AI capabilities at the DealBook Summit last week.
The record
Said Gemini 2.0 is about making information much more useful, and reiterated a challenge for a side-by-side comparison of Google's and Microsoft's models.
One year later — open only if you can handle spoilers
Within a year, Gemini 2.0 Flash became the default model across most Google products, though Project Mariner remained in limited testing. The agentic prototypes previewed features that competitors would rush to match in 2025.