Google DeepMind chief says Gemini 4 is close to launch

In short: Google says Gemini 4, its next top AI model, is being polished now and could launch soon.

What happened

Koray Kavukcuoglu, the new head of Google DeepMind, said Google is nearing the release of Gemini 4. He shared the update in an interview with The Information, his first media appearance in the role.

Kavukcuoglu said Gemini 4 is in a “refinement” stage. That means the model is being adjusted and tested so it behaves better, kind of like editing and fact checking a draft before publishing. He also said Google wants to release an “early post-training output” as soon as possible, and then keep making frequent updates.

Google has not released a new flagship Gemini model since the Gemini 3 series in November 2025. In the time since, competitors have shipped new top models, including OpenAI’s GPT-6 and Anthropic’s Mythos series, which reports say perform better than Gemini 3.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai previously said a Gemini 3.5 Pro update would arrive in June, but it did not roll out. Kavukcuoglu said Google “took a little bit of a step back” and focused instead on faster “Flash” models, which are typically designed to respond quickly but may be less capable.

Why it matters

Many people use AI through search, chat tools, and apps at work and school. If Gemini 4 arrives soon and performs better, it could affect what features show up in Google products and how well they work compared with rival tools.

Source: The Verge AI