Google launches Gemini 3.1 Pro as AI model competition intensifies

On Thursday, Google released Gemini 3.1 Pro, the newest version of its Gemini Pro Large Language Model (LLM). The model is currently available as a preview and will be generally released soon, according to the company. Google’s new model may be one of the most powerful LLMs yet. Onlookers have noted that Gemini 3.1 Pro appears to be a big step up from its predecessor, Gemini 3, which was released in November.

To demonstrate the model’s progress, Google shared statistics from independent benchmarks. Among these was an independent AI benchmark called Humanity’s Last Exam, which showed Gemini 3.1 Pro performing significantly better than its previous version.

Gemini 3.1 Pro has also received praise for its performance on professional tasks. According to Brendan Foody, the CEO of AI startup Mercor, Gemini 3.1 Pro has reached the top of the APEX-Agents leaderboard. Mercor’s benchmarking system, APEX, is designed to measure how well AI models perform real professional tasks. Foody noted in a social media post that the model’s impressive results show “how quickly agents are improving at real knowledge work.”

The release arrives as the AI model wars continue to heat up. Tech companies are racing to release increasingly powerful LLMs designed for agentic work—defined as AI tasks involving autonomous reasoning and multi-step processes—and multi-step reasoning. Competitors, including OpenAI and Anthropic, have also recently released new models.

Why it matters

The release of Gemini 3.1 Pro underscores the intensifying competition among tech firms to dominate the market for agentic AI. In this segment, models are increasingly tasked with autonomous, multi-step reasoning to perform complex professional duties.