Originally published on AI Tech Connect.
What actually happened at Google I/O 2026 Google I/O 2026 delivered a clearer platform signal than any previous developer conference: Gemini 3.5 Flash is not a research preview. It is the operational backbone of Google Search. As of early June 2026, AI Mode in Google Search is powered globally by Gemini 3.5 Flash — the same model that developers can call today via the Gemini API at ai.google.dev. The performance numbers Google cited are striking. Gemini 3.5 Flash is 4x faster than competing models at inference time, per the I/O 2026 announcement. On code and agent benchmarks specifically, it shows a 3.5x improvement over Gemini 3.1 Pro — a model that was already strong on structured reasoning tasks. For context on the broader I/O announcements including Android Intelligence and on-device…
