Sundar Pichai’s “Geminiii” post gets Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s attention as Google unveils Gemini 3

Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai

Google’s AI race entered its next phase on Tuesday with the launch of Gemini 3, the company’s newest and most capable model to date. And in classic Sundar Pichai fashion, the announcement arrived with a single understated post on X: “Geminiii.”

Two years after Google introduced the first Gemini to counter the rising dominance of ChatGPT, the company now claims it has built its “most intelligent model” yet. What followed was a surprisingly cordial reaction from two of Pichai’s fiercest competitors.

Elon Musk replied with a simple “Congrats”. No emojis, no sarcasm — a rarity. OpenAI’s Sam Altman chimed in as well, calling Gemini 3 a “great model” and congratulating Google on the launch. For a field known for rivalry and one-upmanship, the moment was brief but notable.

Gemini 3’s biggest upgrade sits inside Google Search. A new AI “thinking” feature is designed to offer faster, more direct reasoning — the kind that goes beyond summarising links and instead helps users analyse, plan and problem-solve. Google executives say the experience is meant to feel like working with a genuine thought partner.

Crucially, the company insists it has built tighter guardrails to reduce hallucinations and prevent the model from being misused for hacking or sensitive tasks — one of the biggest criticisms levelled against frontier AI systems.

Google describes Gemini 3’s output as more “concise and direct”, favouring clarity over clichés and offering insight rather than flattery. With the company betting heavily on AI-augmented Search, Gemini 3 becomes a marquee moment in its broader push to redefine how people find information, build ideas and get things done.