Google announces its Thinking model with Gemini close on the heels of OpenAI and DeepSeek

Google has announced its latest Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental model, alongside a host of other AI models including the Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental. The new flash thinking model, launched for Gemini app users, now adds thinking and reasoning capabilities to Gemini. This is similar to what OpenAI has done with its o1 and DeepSeek's R1 models.

Notably, Google had released its reasoning model in December but didn't get much traction back then. With the world now fixated on reasoning models, thanks to DeepSeek, Google thought it to be the right time to bundle its model with the Gemini app.

 In a blog post announcing the launch, Google also said that its Gemini 2.0 Flash model is "currently ranked as the world’s best model."

Just days ago during the Q4 earnings call, Google also announced that the company is expected to spend $75 billion to develop AI infrastructure, as it races to compete with OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta, as well as a growing presence by low-cost Chinese models. 

Google is also rolling out a version of 2.0 Flash Thinking that can interact with apps like YouTube, Search and Google Maps. Google's thinking model will be able to show its thought process, allowing users to see why it responds to queries and prompts in a certain way, as well as trace the model's line of reasoning.