Google to Release Gemini 3.8 Flash with Improved Coding Skills

According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is about to release a new model called Gemini 3.8 Flash, codenamed "Skimaki," which could launch as early as this Wednesday. The model has significantly improved coding abilities, and in internal tests, engineers preferred it over Anthropic's Opus model, narrowing the gap with Anthropic and OpenAI.

Gemini 3.8 Flash is part of the Flash series, designed to be smaller, cheaper, and faster, but less powerful than the "Pro" series flagship models. Google's most powerful "Pro" series models are months behind schedule, with the internal 3.5 Pro candidate abandoned for insufficient improvements, and the next flagship Gemini 4 still in training.

The release comes amid leadership changes at Google DeepMind, with co-founder Demis Hassabis moving to chairman, and Koray Kavukcuoglu taking over daily operations, emphasizing faster execution. To boost coding skills, Google has increased investment in reinforcement learning and hired former OpenAI training lead Barret Zoph for this area.