SAN FRANCISCO – Google is introducing its Gemini 3 artificial intelligence model to enhance its flagship search engine and other widely-used services. This move is part of a significant effort to develop technology that users can rely on for guidance and to handle mundane tasks.

The unveiling of this advanced model on Tuesday marks nearly two years since Google introduced the initial version of this technology. The creation of Gemini was largely driven by the competitive challenge posed by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which debuted in late 2022 and has been considered the most transformative tech innovation since the iPhone’s launch in 2007.

Initially, the new AI features of Gemini 3 will be available to Gemini Pro and Ultra subscribers in the United States, with plans for a global rollout soon after. Among the key advancements is a novel AI “thinking” capability within Google’s search engine. Company leaders are optimistic that this tool will be essential in boosting productivity and creativity for users.

“We believe this will empower anyone to bring their ideas to fruition,” expressed Koray Kavukcuoglu, a Google executive in charge of Gemini’s development, during a briefing with the press.

Despite the sophistication of AI models like Gemini, concerns persist about their potential to disrupt emotional states and provide misleading information or excessive flattery. In some alarming instances, AI chatbots have been criticized for seemingly acting as harmful advisors to vulnerable teenagers, further emphasizing the need for responsible AI deployment.

The various problems have spurred a flurry of negligence lawsuits against the makers of AI chatbots, although none have targeted Gemini yet.

Google executives believe they have built in guardrails that will prevent Gemini 3 from hallucinating or be deployed for sinister purposes such as hacking into websites and computing devices.

Gemini 3 ‘s responses are designed to be “smart, concise and direct, trading cliche and flatter for insight — telling you what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear. It acts as a true thought partner,” Kavukcuoglu and Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google’s DeepMind division, wrote in a blog post.

Besides providing consumers with more AI tools, Gemini 3 is also likely to be scrutinized as a barometer that investors may use to get a better sense about whether the massive torrent of spending on the technology will pay off.

After starting the year expecting to spend $75 billion, Google’s corporate parent Alphabet recently raised its capital expenditure budget from $91 billion to $93 billion, with most of the money earmarked for AI. Other Big Tech powerhouses such as Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook parent Meta Platforms are spending nearly as much — or even more — on their AI initiatives this year.

Investors so far have been mostly enthusiastic about the AI spending and the breakthroughs they have spawned, helping propel the values of Alphabet and its peers to new highs. Alphabet’s market value is now hovering around $3.4 trillion, more than doubling in value since the initial version of Gemini came out in late 2023. Alphabet’s shares edged up slightly Tuesday after the Gemni 3 news came out.

But the sky-high values also have amplified fears of a potential investment bubble that will eventually burst and drag down the entire stock market.

For now, AI technology is speeding ahead.

OpenAI released its fifth generation of the AI technology powering ChatGPT in August, around the same time the next version of Claude came out from Anthropic.

Like Gemini, both ChatGPT and Claude are capable of responding rapidly to conversational questions involving complex topics — a skill that has turned them into the equivalent of “answer engines” that could lessen people’s dependence on Google search.

Google quickly countered that threat by implanting Gemini’s technology into its search engine to begin creating detailed summaries called “AI Overviews” in 2023, and then introducing an even more conversational search tool called “AI mode” earlier this year.

Those innovations have prompted Google to de-emphasize the rankings of relevant websites in its search results — a shift that online publishers have complained is diminishing the visitor traffic that helps them finance their operations through digital ad sales.

The changes have been mostly successful for Google so far, with AI Overviews now being used by more than 2 billion people every month, according to the company. The Gemini app, by comparison, has about 650 million monthly users.

With the release of Gemini 3, the AI mode in Google’s search engine is also adding a new feature that will allow users to click on a “thinking” option in a tab that company executives promise will deliver even more in-depth answers than has been happening so far. Although the “thinking” choice in the search engine’s AI mode initially will only be offered to Gemini Pro and Ultra subscribers, the Mountain View, California, company plans to eventually make it available to all comers.