{"slug": "google-announces-gemini-4-argon-invite-only-for-now", "title": "Google announces Gemini 4 Argon, invite only for now", "summary": "Google announced Gemini 4 Argon on Wednesday, an invite-only model priced at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output, doubling to $4/$20 after the introductory period, with access limited to \"trusted cyber defenders\" through its Fairwind Program. Google's own table has Gemini 4 Argon setting a new state of the art on the DeepSWE v1.1 software-engineering benchmark at 77.9%, while independent benchmarking firm Artificial Analysis scored it 53 on its Intelligence Index at high effort, ranking 8th of 223 models tracked at $1.99 per task. The same week, OpenAI's Codex team member Tibo Sottiaux said capacity additions should bring GPT-6.1 Sol to \"almost twice the speed compared to what we served yesterday\" after users reported it running at 20 tokens per second in Codex, and GitHub expanded its multi-model HydraFusion router from the Copilot CLI into VS Code and the Copilot app behind the chat.copilot.hydraFusion.enabled flag, requiring VS Code 1.140 or later.", "body_md": "# Google announces Gemini 4 Argon, invite only for now\n\nGemini 4 Argon tops one coding benchmark in Google's own table but is invite only for now. GPT-6.1 Sol's speed complaints draw a promised fix from OpenAI's Codex team. Two more stories inside.\n\nGoogle announced Gemini 4 Argon on Wednesday, and its own table has the model beating GPT-6 Astra and Claude on one coding test — but nobody outside an invited group of \"trusted cyber defenders\" can use it yet. GPT-6.1 Sol users are complaining it runs at a crawl; a member of OpenAI's Codex team says capacity is the problem and a fix is coming within hours. Factory's CEO fired his own board adviser on X on Wednesday, accusing him of leaking to rival Cognition — the adviser says he quit. And GitHub's HydraFusion, a system that routes a coding task between models instead of picking one, has expanded from the Copilot CLI into VS Code itself.\n\n## What changed this week\n\n### Google announces Gemini 4 Argon, invite only for now\n\nGoogle announced Gemini 4 Argon on Wednesday and says it's \"rolling out to a set of trusted cyber defenders through our Fairwind Program,\" not to developers. It lists at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output, matching OpenAI's GPT-6.1 Sol and Anthropic's Sonnet 5.5, doubling to $4/$20 once the introductory period ends. Google's own table has Argon setting \"a new state of the art on DeepSWE v1.1,\" a real-world software-engineering benchmark, at 77.9%. The same table has Opus 5.5 ahead on Terminal-bench 4.0 and GPT-6 Astra ahead on FrontierSWE v2. [Artificial Analysis](https://artificialanalysis.ai/models/gemini-4-argon?ref=thenewway.ai), an independent benchmarking firm, scored it 53 on its Intelligence Index at high effort, 8th of 223 models tracked, at $1.99 per task. Access starts \"with paid API customers and Google AI Ultra subscribers,\" with no date given. You can read about Argon today. You can't use it.\n\n### OpenAI promises a fix after GPT-6.1 Sol users report a crawl\n\nOpenAI's GPT-6.1 Sol, shipped Tuesday, is drawing complaints of a crawl. A [1,053-point r/codex thread](https://old.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wuatzt/gpt61_sol_feels_unlimited_because_it_runs_at_20/?ref=thenewway.ai) pegs it in Codex at \"20 tokens per second,\" a user's reading under load. Tibo Sottiaux, a member of OpenAI's Codex team, said on X that OpenAI had added capacity and speed should improve \"in the coming hours,\" reaching \"almost twice the speed compared to what we served yesterday.\" [Artificial Analysis](https://artificialanalysis.ai/models/gpt-6-1-sol-medium?ref=thenewway.ai), testing the API at medium effort, measures 57 tokens per second. Check Codex again before planning around it.\n\n### Factory fires its board adviser, alleging he leaked to Cognition\n\nFactory and Cognition, the maker of Devin, both build AI coding agents. Factory CEO Matan Grinberg said on X Wednesday he fired board adviser Chris Degnan, alleging Degnan \"was also confiding with executives of our largest competitor,\" Cognition. Degnan announced he'd joined Cognition as [chief revenue officer](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/factory-ceo-just-accused-his-vc-board-advisor-of-spying-for-cognition/?ref=thenewway.ai) and [says he resigned](https://x.com/cwdegnan/status/2105366216500183311?ref=thenewway.ai), not was fired. [Cognition's CEO denied](https://x.com/ScottWu46/status/2105360290993115469?ref=thenewway.ai) the leak claim. Grinberg says \"We do not know the extent of the information he shared.\" Treat it as an unproven accusation.\n\n### GitHub expands HydraFusion, its multi-model picker, to VS Code\n\nGitHub's HydraFusion, a Copilot CLI preview three weeks ago, is now in VS Code and the Copilot app, behind a flag. It isn't one model; it's three modes: one model alone, a cheap model drafting with escalation on a quality gate, or a second model critiquing before the first revises. You'll need VS Code 1.140 or later, or Insiders, plus chat.copilot.hydraFusion.enabled. Flip it if you're already a Copilot user.\n\n## Also worth your time\n\n- [DeepSeek Harness, DeepSeek's agent harness, gets a desktop app for macOS and Windows in its v0.2 preview, with the dsh command bundled so you don't need Node or pnpm (GitHub)](https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness/releases?ref=thenewway.ai)\n- [livenerf, a daily benchmark tracking whether Opus 5.5 quietly got worse, is at day 7 of 30; its first possible verdict is around October 24 (GitHub)](https://github.com/ninjahawk/livenerf?ref=thenewway.ai)\n\nKnow someone who'd want this in their inbox? Forward it — that's how this grows. And if we got something wrong, or you think we buried the real story today, hit reply. A person reads every one.\n\n*The New Way is written with AI. It gathers the day's stories, checks them against their sources and drafts every summary. A person decides what runs and reviews every issue before we hit send.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-announces-gemini-4-argon-invite-only-for-now", "canonical_source": "https://www.thenewway.ai/google-announces-gemini-4-argon-invite-only-for-now/", "published_at": "2026-10-01 13:59:12+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-01 14:16:05.879351+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "large-language-models", "ai-products", "ai-tools", "ai-agents"], "entities": ["Google", "Gemini 4 Argon", "OpenAI", "GPT-6.1 Sol", "Tibo Sottiaux", "GitHub", "HydraFusion", "Artificial Analysis"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-announces-gemini-4-argon-invite-only-for-now", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-announces-gemini-4-argon-invite-only-for-now.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-announces-gemini-4-argon-invite-only-for-now.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-announces-gemini-4-argon-invite-only-for-now.jsonld"}}