Right on Cue, Google Is Reportedly on the Verge of Shipping a Coding-First AI Model

Google is reportedly on the verge of releasing Gemini 3.8 Flash, also known as 'Skimaki', as early as Wednesday, according to an anonymously-sourced Wall Street Journal story. The model is said to have 'significantly upgraded coding capabilities' and has been tested on an internal coding tool called 'Jetski', with coders reportedly preferring it over Anthropic's Claude Opus. The release comes amid a leadership shift at Google DeepMind, with Demis Hassabis stepping down as CEO and Sergey Brin taking a more active interest in AI.

According to the popular narrative right now, Google is behind when it comes to AI models. In the popular imagination, it finished at the top of the pile last year https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-started-the-year-behind-in-the-ai-race-it-ended-2025-on-top-150352574.html , and then got steamrolled by “agents” when platforms like OpenClaw https://gizmodo.com/openai-just-hired-the-openclaw-guy-and-now-you-have-to-learn-who-he-is-2000722579 made token-guzzling agentic coding into the AI trend of 2026. So if you’ve been waiting for Google DeepMind to pivot to coding, like OpenAI did in March https://gizmodo.com/openai-reportedly-pivoting-to-a-focus-on-business-and-productivity-only-2000734341 , that’s now on the verge of happening, according to an anonymously-sourced story in the Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/new-google-ai-model-said-to-narrow-gap-on-coding-ability-264c6052?st=aeqCY9&reflink=desktopwebshare permalink . The Journal says Gemini 3.8 Flash, also known as “Skimaki” could be released as early as Wednesday It’s Tuesday as I’m writing this . The anonymous insiders who spoke to the Journal touted the model’s “significantly upgraded coding capabilities.” To be clear, this supposed release will not be the sort of multi-trillion parameter model like OpenAI’s still-unreleased Astra. Frontier AI models now routinely come with prophecies of doom https://openai.com/index/path-to-astra/ before they’re released, and have to endure a mysterious https://www.wired.com/story/the-white-house-is-keeping-its-ai-cybersecurity-framework-secret/ vetting procedure from the White House. Instead of being the biggest and strongest, Gemini Flash models, like this rumored 3.8 Flash release, are designed to run faster and cheaper, which are also increasingly valuable attributes—thus the rise of platforms for efficiently aggregating tokens from different models, like OpenRouter https://www.theinformation.com/newsletters/the-briefing/stripe-takes-openrouter . But the timing here is no accident. DeepMind founder and former boss Demis Hassabis stepped aside as Deepmind’s CEO https://gizmodo.com/google-deepmind-boss-demis-hassabis-steps-down-from-ceo-role-2000794979 early last month. While insiders were quick to claim that he’d had one foot out the door for about a year https://gizmodo.com/demis-hassabis-had-reportedly-been-plotting-to-leave-his-deepmind-ceo-job-for-a-year-2000795110 , it was also widely reported https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/sergey-brin-wants-google-double-170001830.html that Google founder Sergey Brin was taking a more active interest in AI https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/sergey-brin-wants-google-double-170001830.html , and planning on quickly shipping more competitive Gemini models. Hassabis, remember, is a Nobel prize winner in chemistry and has sounded as recently as last year like he was in no hurry to release revolutionary models https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/04/demis-hassabis-ai-future-10-times-bigger-than-industrial-revolution-and-10-times-faster given the risks. His new role at DeepMind is largely focused on scientific research https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/06/demis-hassabis-google-reshuffle-deepmind-role.html , where he seems more comfortable. The Journal’s Google insiders say “Skimaki” has been tested on an internal coding tool called “Jetski,” and apparently coders say they like it better than Anthropic’s Claude Opus.