Google launches 3.8 flash 'Skimaki' AI model to speed coding
Google is rolling out its new AI model, 3.8 Flash, on September 2, 2026, aimed at making coding faster and smarter.
Internally known as "Skimaki," it's built to rival tech from OpenAI and Anthropic.
Early tests using Google's Jetski tool show engineers actually favor 3.8 Flash over Anthropic's Opus, which says a lot about its potential.
Google pours research resources into coding
Unlike previous models that needed tons of power, the new Flash series is smaller, more efficient, and easier to update, so it won't slow you down.
Development started well before recent leadership changes; Koray Kavukcuoglu has been pushing for quicker project launches.
Plus, Barret Zoph, recently hired as a vice president of research focused on reinforcement learning and posttraining, Google has been pouring more of its researchers' time and computing resources into improving its models' coding capabilities.