Google's 3.8 Flash AI: Faster Coding, GOOGL Up

Google is reportedly ready to release a new artificial intelligence model, potentially as soon as Wednesday. This new model, called 3.8 Flash and internally known as "Skimaki," aims to improve coding capabilities. What's interesting is that Google engineers have reportedly preferred this new model over Anthropic's Opus in internal testing. This comes as Google has been dedicating more research and computing resources to strengthen its models' coding abilities, especially in reinforcement learning. The company has faced setbacks this year, with its Gemini models trailing competitors in agentic coding. While 3.8 Flash is designed to be smaller, cheaper, and faster, it is less powerful than Google's largest models. Alphabet's stock, GOOGL, was up about 0.7% in after-hours trading. This development could impact the competitive landscape in AI model development.