59Gemini 4 Carbon's score, number one on the Artificial Analysis index
Just two weeks after Gemini 4 Argon, Google showed Gemini 4 Carbon. It is now number one on the Intelligence index A combined score that mixes many AI tests into one number, so models can be ranked side by side. Artificial Analysis runs the best-known one., the scoreboard most people use to compare AI models. But almost nobody can use it yet.
Key points
- Carbon scored 59 on the new version 5 of the index, ahead of Claude Opus 5.5 (58) and GPT-6 Astra (57). That is 9 points more than Argon (InfoQ China, The AI Daily Brief).
- It is built for long jobs. Google says it has seen Carbon work for days on its own to find and fix tiny bugs in big codebases. On the coding agent ranking it is second, 3 points behind Opus 5.5.
- It is also very good at cyber security tests: finding weak spots, proving they can be exploited, and fixing them. That is why Google is giving it first only to a small group of trusted cyber defenders, then more testers through its Fairwind programme, before developers and the public.
- Early hands-on views are thin. Arena, which got test access, said its 3D and game design results looked less polished than Opus 5.5, but one Arena tester said it feels a lot better than Argon. The AI Daily Brief said it will hold judgement until people can try it.
Why it matters: Google is back near the front of the AI race and is shipping new versions faster. It also shows a new pattern: the most powerful models may go to security teams first, before everyone else.
