AI News: Gemini 2.5 Flash, o3 and o4, Claude Research, Kling 2.0, and More!

# AI roundup: Gemini 2.5 Flash leads wave of powerful new models

This week has been a whirlwind of AI model releases from the major players, with each company trying to outdo the others in capabilities, efficiency, and pricing. Let’s break down the highlights.

## Gemini 2.5 Flash: Google’s budget-friendly powerhouse

Google has released Gemini 2.5 Flash, a more affordable version of their impressive Gemini 2.5 Pro. The standout feature? It’s their first “fully hybrid reasoning model” that lets developers turn “thinking” on or off depending on the task complexity.

What makes it special:
– Super affordable at just $0.15 per million input tokens
– Option to set a “thinking budget” with fixed tokens
– Performs well on benchmarks, though not quite at the level of OpenAI’s new O4 Mini

For context, here’s how the pricing compares:
– Gemini 2.5 Flash: $0.15 per million input tokens
– Claude 3.7 Sonnet: $3.00
– GPT-4o Mini: $1.00
– DeepSeek R1: $0.55

## OpenAI’s triple release: O3, O4 Mini, and GPT-4.1

OpenAI wasn’t playing around this week, dropping three new models:

**O3**: Features the most impressive tool use capabilities seen yet, allowing it to use tools within its chain of thought process. In a striking demo, it was able to pinpoint an exact location in Hawaii just from a photo with no metadata.

**O4 Mini**: A smaller, more efficient, and less expensive version that still performs incredibly well on benchmarks.

**GPT-4.1**: The successor to GPT-4o comes in three versions (Nano, Mini, and full version), offering improved multilingual understanding and reduced latency.

## Anthropic adds Google Workspace integration

Claude has launched “Research” (similar to deep research features from competitors) and added integration with Google Workspace products including Gmail, Calendar, and Docs. This means you can now use AI to draft email responses and create content directly within these tools.

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