Google announces Gemini 4 and says it’s so capable that only ‘trusted cyber defenders’ can have it right now

Google today revealed its next AI frontier model, which it’s calling Gemini 4 Argon. The new model delivers “frontier performance in complex workflows across real-world software engineering, enterprise knowledge work like legal and finance, and cybersecurity defense,” according to chief AI architect and Google DeepMind SVP Koray Kavukcuoglu. But the company is limiting access at first to a “set of trusted cyber defenders,” and Kavukcuoglu says that Google is “actively engaged in the U.S. government’s voluntary process for pre-release model access while we gradually expand access.”

Kavukcuoglu says Gemini 4 Argon is already powering Google’s “internal workflows,” highlighting how the model has helped with tasks like large-scale codebase migrations. Google also shared a big chart showing many benchmarks where Gemini 4 fares better than competing models from OpenAI and Anthropic. (The AI community was buzzing earlier this week on X over what appeared to be leaked benchmarks for the new model.) Google will be strengthening “critical frontier safeguards” before a broader rollout, including defending against misuse and prompt injection attacks and monitoring for misalignment.

The launch of Gemini 4 Argon comes just a day after OpenAI’s splashy DevDay conference, where OpenAI launched its Dots AI agent and GPT-6.1 Sol AI model. (OpenAI also said this week that it wouldn’t be releasing a planned GPT-6.1 Astra model due to worries about safety.) It’s also arriving soon after Kavukcuoglu’s appointment as the new boss of DeepMind in August.