I needed batch mode. Oh but the key from service X doesn't support batch mode, you need to go service Y and btw there is no UI for that so you need to use an SDK or API (cant even remember anymore). Spend an hour figuring that out, then it turns out I can't use batch mode because I don't have permissions. Have boss spend an hour granting me permissions. Then service is unavailable every n requests for 5 minutes, so I have fuck with exponential back offs.

Glad to see they moved that experience to their consumer offerings lol.

* 3.5 Flash-Lite

* 3.8 Flash

* 3.1 Pro

* 4 Argon - New

And honestly, the versions are hurting their case. I ask myself “how is the oldest model, the Pro model?”

This kind of bungled naming and versioning is the kind of thing I expect from Microsoft.

I'm fairly confident I can't call Carbon, and I am okay with that.

It is the most awful product experience I’ve had this year. How could they fuck it up this badly?

Now, I just go straight to the Hacker News comments. I've given up on trying to figure out how to navigate Google's labyrinth.

Their release notes have become like breakthroughs in graphene. I'll believe it when I see it.

Their go-to-market execution is just so broken.

At the beginning of this whole AI shift, when Google would announce a new model, I would try to get access, even paying for a subscription.

Then I realized it's just not possible.

Google onboarding is the new Gordian knot.

For Google, I think the announcement is the success criteria. And onboarding is somebody else's problem. And the problem is... that somebody doesn't work at Google, or are entirely disempowered.

If, someday, Hacker News comments indicate that a majority of individuals have figured out how to access these newly announced models consistently, I might take my precious personal time to navigate the labyrinth once more.

I have an AI Pro account - which I decided was a no-brainer because of the 5TB of Gmail / GDrive / GPhotos space it gives - and this all just comes along with that.

One thing to check, though, is that the client is running the latest version. At one point my Antigravity GUI, which had been working fine, started listing only Claude and GPT-OSS models. It turned out to be because the GUI needed to be updated. I guess the Google API endpoint had changed behavior without any backward compatibility.

So yeah, they're hilariously bad at rollouts, but it's not that difficult if you're technically inclined or ask an LLM.

The more likely explanation (even if the above is technically true) is that Google is not good at cohesive product experiences.

This isn't rocket science. You're just bitching because your account doesn't have the latest model rolled out yet

https://youtu.be/NO2I3ueVQrk?is=OWezDVBL3l2EHMbR

Tldr; it's about as good as sol. Opus 5.5 is still generally the best though carbon can be very good.

"try to keep up" ?

Benchmarks are just benchmarks and they could have been carefully selected but it's not "trying to keep up": they're ahead of Fable 5.1 and GTP 6 Astra in 15 of the 17 benchmarks. And in many cases by a huge margin.

Instead of talking about that, let's talk about how difficult it is to pick the model or how crazy Google's product naming methodology is.

Not saying they're not concerns: but let's not downplay what the model is achieving by saying they're "trying to pick up" because switching model ain't as easy as with the competition.

I mean: I don't use a model based on how easy it is to switch to another model. That's not what I'm looking for.