New DeepMind chief Koray Kavukcuoglu says the frontier model is launching much earlier than the end of the year.

Koray Kavukcuoglu, the new head of Google DeepMind, said Gemini 4 is in its refinement stage and that Google aims to launch the frontier model well before the end of 2026. He made the remarks in his first media appearance since taking over the division.

Google has not released a new flagship model since the Gemini 3 series arrived in November 2025. OpenAI’s GPT-6 and Anthropic’s Mythos models launched after that and outperform Gemini 3. Google cancelled a planned Gemini 3.5 Pro update that CEO Sundar Pichai previewed at the I/O event in May, and the company shifted focus to faster Flash models instead. Demis Hassabis stepped down as AI head in August.

Teams that standardized on Gemini 3 face a widening capability gap against GPT-6 and Anthropic’s Mythos series, which both benchmark above Google’s current flagship. A Gemini 4 release resets migration planning for anyone routing production traffic through Google’s API, and the pushed Flash models offer a cheaper path for high-volume workloads that tolerate lower capability.

Kavukcuoglu said Google intends to release an early post-training output as soon as results justify it and will continue fast-paced iterations after that. He told The Information he holds no concern about falling behind rivals, calling it a certainty that Google stays at the frontier. Watch for a launch signal and any pricing or API changes that accompany it.

What matters

• Kavukcuoglu told The Information that Gemini 4 is in refinement and will ship as early as possible.
• Google has not shipped a flagship model since Gemini 3 in November 2025, while OpenAI and Anthropic lead.
• Watch whether Google ships an early post-training Gemini 4 build or waits for the full frontier release.

Why it matters

Watch whether Google ships an early post-training Gemini 4 build or waits for the full frontier release.

This GenAI News article was prepared in original wording using reporting and materials published by The Verge. Source reference: https://www.theverge.com/tech/999802/google-deepmind-gemini-4-timeline-koray-kavukcuoglu.

Drafted by the GenAI News review pipeline.