Google Unleashes Gemini 3 Pro: Record Benchmarks, Interactive UIs, and a Bid for AI Leadership

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Google has officially announced the highly anticipated Gemini 3 Pro, heralding what it calls a ‘new era of intelligence.’ Initial benchmark numbers for Gemini 3 Pro indicate a substantial leap in performance, reportedly ‘destroying’ previous models including Gemini 2.5 Pro, GPT-5.1, and Claude Sonnet across various metrics. While the tech community remains cautiously optimistic, citing historical instances where benchmark prowess didn’t fully translate to real-world user experience (e.g., GPT-5, Llama 4), the potential for Google to challenge for the leading position in AI, particularly in raw performance, is a significant talking point. The rollout for Gemini 3 Pro is commencing, making it available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers worldwide through the Gemini app and its web counterpart. Additionally, it will power the AI mode in Google Search, initially for users in the US, with a planned global expansion and the introduction of ‘fast’ and ‘thinking’ modes.

Beyond raw performance, Gemini 3 Pro introduces innovative features designed to evolve user interaction. Google is focusing on ‘purpose-built user interfaces’ within the Gemini app and Search, where responses are not merely textual but include interactive UI elements tailored to specific queries. This functionality is achieved by Gemini 3’s ability to generate the necessary code for these interactive experiences. For developers, Gemini 3 Pro will be accessible via the Gemini API, is already integrated into the Cursor code editor, and will be central to Google’s new AI-centric code editor, ‘Anti-Gravity,’ a VS Code fork. The model boasts multimodal capabilities, processing text, images, video, and documents. Developers can further configure the model with features like grounding with Google Search/URL context, and adjustable ‘thinking levels’ (low, medium, high) and ‘media resolution’ settings to balance detail extraction and token usage. A more powerful ‘Deep Think’ mode is also slated for a future release for Google AI Ultra subscribers. The true impact of Gemini 3 Pro will be measured by its utility and consistency in practical applications beyond its impressive benchmark figures.