Google's journey back to the AI frontier Google CEO Sundar Pichai (left) and DeepMind chair Demis HassabisRuhani Kaur/Bloomberg via Getty Images Google released Gemini 4 Argon this week, hailing it as its most powerful model yet. For now, access is limited to selected cybersecurity partners through Google's Fairwind Program and to Google's own staff. Argon puts Google back in the AI race, with company benchmarks showing particular strength in long-context, coding, and enterprise-agent tasks. Areas where Google had previously been struggling. However, Bloomberg reports that some employees who have used Argon say it does well on benchmarks but disappoints in real-world use. They say it struggles with some coding tasks, especially front-end design, and is so large it may be costly to run. Two insiders said it shows signs of "benchmaxxing," or tuning for test scores over practical usefulness. Google called it "inaccurate" to say the model underperforms at coding. — Beatrice Nolan
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