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As an "everyday mans AI" I'd say 3.8 Flash definitely already has. Smart enough for the vast swath of people, and only slightly eeked out by Astra(Max) on visio

As an "everyday mans AI" I'd say 3.8 Flash definitely already has. Smart enough for the vast swath of people, and only slightly eeked out by Astra(Max) on vision capabilities, like the kind of "Point your camera at something and ask questions" that non-tech people like to do. It's crazy fast and very compute light, so not getting bogged down constantly. I can't think of a better general purpose model than 3.8 flash right now. It also writes more naturally than the other big models too.

mchusma 25d ago
Yeah its good. Reasonably priced too (at current prices, if they do raise them in January I would stop recommending it). 3.7/3.8 were good releases.
- mapontosevenths 25d ago
  To me it's a good replacement for search engines. I ask it things like 'If redshifting destroys energy ala Noether, than how can we say that time is reversible or that entropy will find an equilibrium?' and it will not only explain, but make nice interactive diagram/toys to help. A regular search engine would have taken me hours to find an answer. However, if I want it to DO something then Gemini is in absolute last place. I don't trust it for anything more than renaming files that I don't care about very much or extracting data (though it's too expensive for data extraction at scale).
  - kridsdale1 25d ago
    I’ve mapped my iPhone Action Button directly in to Google App AI Mode (which is Gemini 3.8 but faster inference than the Gemini App, due to harness) It’s for this exact kind of scenario where a random question pops in to my head. Plus, it’s the most grounded by real live data of all the chatbots. Silicon Valley people are majorly sleeping on Google Search AI Mode.
- Cilvic 24d ago
  where did you see the prices?
alex1138 25d ago
Yeah +1 to this People use text with LLMs but it's great to have a high fidelity "analyze this image"
rdtsc 25d ago
I was thinking about coding specifically. Also, see all these math and physics breakthroughs, it's usually not Gemini but Fable and Astra.
- asdfman123 25d ago
  I think 3.7 Flash is very good at coding. I have access to both that and Opus 5. Opus is only slightly better IMO and it's much more frustrating to read.
  - rdtsc 24d ago
    I think it's good at basic coding and is cheaper and faster. Trying it vs Fable 5.1 I don't see it being even close capability-wise. What I mean by basic coding is "write a script to parse this data" and answering some questions based on the code. It does that well and answers fast. However, when it comes to planning and thinking through a more complicated design problem it's just not there yet.
    - Gareth321 24d ago
      It's not even close. Some benchmarks show 3.8 Flash as being close to Astra (DeepSWE v1.1), but they are mostly "bench-maxed". Newer benchmarks like Terminal-Bench 4.0 show Astra at 57.9% and 3.8 Flash at 19.1%. For anyone who has tried to code with Gemini models, there is no contest here. Astra wins handily on every other benchmark, too. Research, science, 3D, visual, Humanity's Last Exam, etc.
      - asdfman123 24d ago
        You can't compare a heavyweight, expensive and slow model to Flash. Comparing apples to oranges.
        Gareth321 23d ago
        I agree, and I didn't compare them. The users above me did. I was explaining that they are, in fact, incomparable.
james2doyle 25d ago
Not only that, the output of tps is high. So not only can it handle most mid-level tasks perfectly fine, but can do it with speed!
bahmboo 25d ago
I find it really good and up-to-date, like within an hour of current events or website updates that it can reference. Astra is a step up for complex stuff, but I'm not going to use up all my tokens to ask it the specs of a 2023 MacBook pro then wait 3 minutes only to get a tome with a complete breakdown of the Mac OS platform and including such things as the supply side dynamics driving the ram size choices and pricing at that time.

mchusma 25d ago

Yeah its good. Reasonably priced too (at current prices, if they do raise them in January I would stop recommending it). 3.7/3.8 were good releases.

mapontosevenths 25d ago
To me it's a good replacement for search engines. I ask it things like 'If redshifting destroys energy ala Noether, than how can we say that time is reversible or that entropy will find an equilibrium?' and it will not only explain, but make nice interactive diagram/toys to help. A regular search engine would have taken me hours to find an answer. However, if I want it to DO something then Gemini is in absolute last place. I don't trust it for anything more than renaming files that I don't care about very much or extracting data (though it's too expensive for data extraction at scale).
- kridsdale1 25d ago
  I’ve mapped my iPhone Action Button directly in to Google App AI Mode (which is Gemini 3.8 but faster inference than the Gemini App, due to harness) It’s for this exact kind of scenario where a random question pops in to my head. Plus, it’s the most grounded by real live data of all the chatbots. Silicon Valley people are majorly sleeping on Google Search AI Mode.
Cilvic 24d ago
where did you see the prices?

alex1138 25d ago

Yeah +1 to this People use text with LLMs but it's great to have a high fidelity "analyze this image"

rdtsc 25d ago

I was thinking about coding specifically. Also, see all these math and physics breakthroughs, it's usually not Gemini but Fable and Astra.

asdfman123 25d ago
I think 3.7 Flash is very good at coding. I have access to both that and Opus 5. Opus is only slightly better IMO and it's much more frustrating to read.
- rdtsc 24d ago
  I think it's good at basic coding and is cheaper and faster. Trying it vs Fable 5.1 I don't see it being even close capability-wise. What I mean by basic coding is "write a script to parse this data" and answering some questions based on the code. It does that well and answers fast. However, when it comes to planning and thinking through a more complicated design problem it's just not there yet.
  - Gareth321 24d ago
    It's not even close. Some benchmarks show 3.8 Flash as being close to Astra (DeepSWE v1.1), but they are mostly "bench-maxed". Newer benchmarks like Terminal-Bench 4.0 show Astra at 57.9% and 3.8 Flash at 19.1%. For anyone who has tried to code with Gemini models, there is no contest here. Astra wins handily on every other benchmark, too. Research, science, 3D, visual, Humanity's Last Exam, etc.
    - asdfman123 24d ago
      You can't compare a heavyweight, expensive and slow model to Flash. Comparing apples to oranges.
      - Gareth321 23d ago
        I agree, and I didn't compare them. The users above me did. I was explaining that they are, in fact, incomparable.

james2doyle 25d ago

Not only that, the output of tps is high. So not only can it handle most mid-level tasks perfectly fine, but can do it with speed!

bahmboo 25d ago

I find it really good and up-to-date, like within an hour of current events or website updates that it can reference. Astra is a step up for complex stuff, but I'm not going to use up all my tokens to ask it the specs of a 2023 MacBook pro then wait 3 minutes only to get a tome with a complete breakdown of the Mac OS platform and including such things as the supply side dynamics driving the ram size choices and pricing at that time.