Gemini

Technically Gemini is a family of models, not a single product. There's a version for quick chat in the browser, a version built into Android (the operating system most phones in the world run on, aside from iPhones), and a version for businesses through Google Cloud. The big release Gemini 3 is the one Google pushed everywhere at once - from Gmail (Google's mail service) to search.

The next generation is already here. On October 13, 2026 Google released Gemini 4 Argon globally, but not free for everyone. Through the API it is on the paid tier only, with a starting price of 2 dollars per million input tokens and 10 per million output tokens. In the Gemini app and in AI Mode in search it is for Pro and Ultra subscribers. The free tier and users without a subscription are not listed in the announcement. The results Google cites for the model are its own.

Two weeks later, on October 28, 2026, came Gemini 4 Carbon - in Google's words its strongest model, with leading cybersecurity capabilities. It follows the same path as Argon: this week to a limited group of cyber defenders, then gradually to more trusted partners through the Fairwind program, and for developers, businesses and consumers "as soon as possible", with no date. The introductory price is 2 dollars per million input tokens and 10 per million output tokens, then 4 and 20. Google does not say how long the introductory period lasts, and all the numbers for the model are its own.

In practice it looks like this: you ask your inbox "who gave me a quote for the bathroom last year" and Gemini reads your emails and answers you in a plain sentence, not a link. On Android the model acts proactively - it books you a spin class ticket on its own, or finds the syllabus in an email and adds the required books to your cart. In May 2026 Google also launched "Gemini Spark" - an agent you literally email a task to, and it does it on its own through Chrome, while you watch the progress from your phone.

The reason Gemini exists is simple - Google has three billion phones, the most used search engine in the world, and all of your mail and documents. When ChatGPT showed that people want to ask AI directly instead of searching and clicking links, Google felt a threat to its own search engine. The answer wasn't a new app to download, it was the opposite - letting the AI-driven assistant disappear into the environment you already live in.

You don't download Gemini. It's already in your phone, reading your mail and deciding for you - the question is whether anyone ever asked you.

Here's Where the Real Thing Starts

There's no mystery here - the owner is Google, that is, Alphabet. But that's exactly why Gemini is a different case from ChatGPT or Claude. Gemini is built into your phone's operating system, into your mail, into your calendar. Turning it off means deciding to live without the core services you've used for years.

So for me the question isn't whether Gemini is a good model - it probably is. The question is who decides when it reads my mail and acts in my name, and whether I have any choice at all, once it's already there by default.

The visual is generated code-art, no third-party images.