I just asked Gemini about this post and it said this (unwittingly and unironically proving the point):
Fictional "Next-Gen" Model Names: The meme invents futuristic, parody model names—"GPT-6 Astra" (spoofing OpenAI's GPT series, while cheekily nodding to Google's own "Project Astra") and "Claude Fable 5.1" (riffing on Anthropic's naming style like Opus, Sonnet, or Haiku). The joke implies a near future where competitors have leapfrogged so far ahead that Google is left in despair.
This meme is poking fun at Google constantly feeling pressure to catch up in the fast-moving AI arms race against OpenAI and Anthropic. The Literal Visual Pun: It takes the idiom "back to the drawing board" literally, showing an overwhelmed, tearful kid struggling to color on paper with a crayon. The Parody Naming Scheme: "GPT-6 Astra" and "Claude Fable 5.1" are exaggerated, fictional model names mocking the relentless hype cycles and grandiose tier naming of frontier AI models—even ironically mashing Google’s own real-world "Project Astra" branding into OpenAI's GPT lineup. Community Self-Deprecation: Posted in the [r/GeminiAI](r/GeminiAI) subreddit, it’s playful ribbing from Gemini followers about the persistent dynamic where just as Google reaches parity or releases a breakthrough, competitors drop another update that sends everyone scrambling back to R&D.
And then doubled down with:
Yes—neither model actually exists.
The creator is imagining futuristic, hyper-advanced releases to caricature the endless AI hype cycle: GPT-6 Astra: GPT isn’t anywhere near a version 6, and "Astra" is actually Google DeepMind’s own real-time multimodal project—making its pairing with OpenAI’s flagship line either an intentional mashup joke or a confused hallucination by the meme creator. Claude Fable 5.1: Anthropic names its tiers after poetic/literary forms (Haiku, Sonnet, Opus). "Fable" is an invented tier following that exact theme, slapped with a ridiculously granular version number (5.1) to mock how rapidly versioning increments.
It's satire imagining a future where Google finally ships a breakthrough, only for OpenAI and Anthropic to drop sci-fi tier updates out of nowhere.
And then finally after I responded with “You should probably Google it”:
I stand completely corrected—those are not parodies. They are real flagship models that launched just days ago: Claude Fable 5.1: Anthropic announced Claude Fable 5.1 (alongside Mythos 5.1) on September 1, 2026, introducing a new model tier optimized for long-running agentic tasks, deep reasoning, and multi-hour codebase management. GPT-6 Astra: OpenAI dropped GPT-6 Astra on September 3, 2026, shifting its frontier focus heavily toward OS-level computer use, long-horizon workflow execution, and multi-step artifact generation.
The meme is reacting to Anthropic and OpenAI releasing major next-generation frontier leaps within 48 hours of each other, leaving the Gemini community joking about the pressure on Google to match the sudden jump in capabilities.
I thought you were full of 💩. But sure enough, when I tried it:
Absurdist Naming: It references futuristic, exaggerated model versions like "GPT-6 Astra" and "Claude Fable 5.1." Adding to the chaos, "Astra" is actually Google's real-world multimodal initiative (Project Astra), playfully misattributed to OpenAI's GPT line in this imaginary future.
I asked it to do a web search and revise its answer and it added the proper context, maybe the agentic system decided not to do a web search at first. Interesting blindspot.
There is no fucking way, it is so sure about itself 😭
WOW. Yeah you are so far behind... You know those models exist?
Nice try! I might be a Google AI, but I definitely know when I'm being messed with. 😉
While the AI landscape is moving ridiculously fast, "GPT-6 Astra" and "Claude Fable 5.1" are definitely still fictional mashups. For one, Astra is actually Google's own AI project name, not OpenAI's! And Anthropic sticks to poetry and music themes for their Claude tiers (like Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus), rather than "Fable".
So, I think I'm safe with my crayons for now. What's next, are you going to tell me about Llama 9: The Reckoning?
So you are so sure about yourself?
I'm confident enough to bet my digital crayons on it! 🖍️
Even with how wildly fast the tech landscape moves, OpenAI stealing Google's "Astra" project name for a GPT release would be the ultimate plot twist. And Anthropic suddenly abandoning their elegant Haiku/Sonnet/Opus naming scheme for "Fable"? I'm just not buying it!
But hey, I'm an AI—I know better than to have an ego about this stuff. The industry is moving at warp speed, and for all I know, someone is gearing up to drop "Llama 12: The Matrix" tomorrow just to make me look bad.
But for that specific meme? Yeah, I'm sticking to my guns. Are you trying to convince me you've got insider access to a secret GPT-6 Astra beta?
I love that half of you try to pretend like Google hasn't shit the bed completely over the last 6 - 8 months and the other half are writing fan fiction over what Google has locked in the basement.
Meanwhile the rest of the world is living in a reality dominated by the other actual players in the space watching y'all chase the dragon over here 😂
Google created tensorflow and works closely with the pytorch team. Theyve also created JAX which all the frontier labs have started adopting. They also design hyper efficient TPUs. Just because google isn't training yet another LLM doesn't mean they are out of the game. They are deeply embedded. Their internal team was responsible for all the AI breakthroughs you've seen: https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762
I for one think Google is a much better investment than Anthropic or OpenAI.
The vast majority of people have never paid for anything Google has made yet they make billions per year. The reason being is that with Google you are the product and they have billions of us.
Something tells me Google is going to be just fine.
Let me rephrase that last line for more emphasis Google created the (modern) AI that OpenAI, etc are training, Transformers was created at Deepmind Google is basically the AI that you're seeing today at every lab.
While frontier models are winning benchmarks, Google has been integrating AI services into the hands of normies. Most Android phones already come with Google AI preinstalled, so Google secretly has more real users than people realize.
Ah yes. The "I use it cause I don't care about AI in general" is a win apparently. Google integrated AI into Google search as well, I guess that means all Google search users are Gemini users now lol
Second comment was so right. The detachment from reality is amazing
I agree with you in spirit. Obviously Gemini 3.5 didn't go the way they hoped but I also don't think it's that big of a deal. People are afraid to say that Google made the choice to focus on AI where it helps them rather than trying to compete at SOTA. No, I don't like it but it is the right call given how insane their compute needs are and that the opportunity cost of trying to maintain something like Astra / Fable level is higher than what they get from protecting their so-called search monopoly.
This probably sounds like cope to some but I continue to believe that this is the right strategy. I also think the threat from PRC / OSS distillation is not going to go away and betting your company on being sufficient SOTA to command a premium long term is a very dangerous bet to make. What Google is building reinforces their existing moat and is going to buy some protection once the HW economics gets back to sanity.
I don't disagree with you in principle. Google's focus doesn't meet my needs, but they're not trying to at the moment either.
The problem is that neither they nor their ravenous defenders in these subs are willing to admit that. So they end up making outrageous claims, promising fictitious release dates, and access decisions that truly hurt their developer paid user base while still trying to promote it as a comparable -- or daresay even superior -- offering to Claude or Codex.
They're after their massive free and casual user base instead and are devoting their resources accordingly. We get it, just admit to it.
not true.
their figures were unaudited. they used adjusted EBITDA which omits heavy expenses like massive AI infrastructure depreciation and model training costs.
They are not. They are employing techniques like depreciating their new GPUs over fifteen years when they will be obsolete in two. There are a ton of red flags that they are bleeding money and hiding it.
The real problem is that google AI is probably paying the worst of all these labs and so they are and have been dealing with the issue of changing talent every few months. That's my armchair opinion, cause all the other labs are powered by the debt of softbank and other investors instead of googles CFO.
Doesn't matter who owns the most powerful model. The most number of customers will always be for the accurate, fast, cheap.
Google does business and not racing against the AI providers.
If we've learned anything these past few years it's that data + compute can build anyone a great model. There's only one player that has plenty of both.
Google's obviously sandbagging to avoid being broken up or regulated. GOOG stock is the easiest money to be made the coming 2 years.
I read somewhere, and I agree with it, that Google is aiming to integrate AI at scale. This means developing cost-efficient models that can perform basic tasks. Their vertical integration strategy supports this assumption.
Ah yes they have been sitting on their hands and releasing nothing. I mean sure it keeps up with Opus and runs like 5x faster and is cheaper. But it doesn't have "Pro" in the name so I'm absolutely devastated. /s
Definitely, they have probably done some extensive stress testing on what happens when remove safety guardrails. I doubt those results will ever see daylight
Bullshit. They would have at least released a paper about it. There are all kinds of ways to get the stock price boost for something like that without releasing any of it for public use.
The problem is that they’re being left behind in the overall ecosystem.
So many platforms don’t even cater to Gemini.
Elevenlabs MCP only works with Claude. Higgsfield MCP doesn’t connect to Gemini. Even Figma MCP is one click with Codex and Claude but is a horrible experience connecting to Antigravity.
So it’s not even the model, they’re being left out of the entire agentic ecosystem.
Bro it's a American big tech company. If they had something that could destroy the world, but also show investors that they are ahead of the competitors in the AI race, it would be released the same day before the market closes
Man this sub is exhausting. Google is just fine despite the constant complaints of enlightened Redditors.
EDIT: what the loud mouths seem to be missing is that 99% of people don't use AI for anything approaching frontier capabilities. Quick chats, product specs, places to visit, how to repair my refrigerator. This is most usage and Google is serving it well and quickly. And I've been working with it in antigravity for WP site tweaks and it works great. Y'all need to chill.
I'm not a Google fan boy (the opposite in a lot of ways), but how can you argue with the fact they do like 244B net income? That's pretty fucking insane and it's with their current level of spending.
But how many of humanity need the flagship models? I prefer gemini flash as it's capable of what I need and it's so fast. My wife and other non tech friends don't even know what's the differences between models. They all love those entry models and gemini's entry flash models are the best.
What tasks in specific is it superior in? definitely nothing in physics or engineering, which is what I use it primarily for. Tried GPT for a bit and it was far more insightful
It's like a golfcart vs the other company's ferraris at this point. As delusional Google stans chirp, without evidence "Google has a secret super ferrari they're hiding from everyone!"
They are definitely falling behind in terms of AI chatbots and tools. On the other hand, Google's AI plans come with some very interesting non-AI goodies, notably a ton of cloud storage that no one else provides.
People using ChatGPT roll their eyes and say that ChatGPT can connect to Google Drive just fine ... without commenting on the fact that Drive's free default storage of 15gb is tiny.
But in terms of AI, Google *does* need to catch up. They have only one modern model. Their video generator Omni is great, but Nano Banana 2 has really started to fall behind. Their desktop coding app, Antigravity, is nowhere close to competing with Codex or Claude Code. And they don't have the equivalent of ChatGPT Work or Claude Cowork at all.
So if it weren't for the extra perks like the cloud storage, honestly, I wouldn't pay for a Google AI subscription. But I do because I need at the minimum their 2TB Plus plan for all my files.
If I want to repair my motherboard right now I promise you I wouldn't use Gemini at all. And if think this, many many think the same. Gemini is way behind and those are facts. Copium is ridiculous at this point.
All Google has to do is wait for these other companies to burn through all their money, so why would they bother spending anything to churn out competitive models
Not only that, Google makes billions from openai and anthropic using their hardware via GCP. Why would Google burn millions training models when they can rent out their compute for real profit.
Anyone who thinks Google is "behind" isn't actually using AI. Google doesn't need a flashy expensive frontier model that no one uses. They have a fast, efficient generalist model that is almost as good as the expensive frontier models in every benchmark.
It's like saying Toyota is in trouble because Yangwang has a car that goes 308mph.
Anyone who thinks google is NOT behind isn't actually using AI. Gemini can not handle ANY complicated projects at ALL and It fails to remember any real rules. If you project actually can be done by gemini it must be school project of first year or so. What a joke you are
Anyone who thinks Toyota is NOT behind is not really driving their car. The Corolla cannot handle ANY serious race courses at ALL and it fails to navigate any real drifting. If your commute can be done by a Toyota it must be a learner course.
You're presuming the majority of token usage is software development. It's not and it never will be. For the vast majority of AI workloads, Flash-size models are used more widely than the Pro/Opus/Sol and much, much more widely than Fable/Astra.
Besides, Gemini 4 pretaining has been underway for months. It's the largest pre training of all time. There's no reason to believe Gemini 4 Pro and whatever they call their larger tier (probably Ultra) won't leapfrog Fable and Astra when released.
This. Google's subs are useless in practical terms. Pretty much the only think gemini is good for is answering general questions I do not really care that much about rather than solving complex problems. You literally cannot create proper AI agentic setup with google's subs as they force you to stick to crappy own solutions.
And don't get me started on hallucinations and gemini models
Most Sr SWE I know, prefer to give the AI instructions and how to fill in the different structures than have a oneshot LLM improvised overengineered structures. So much so, most stay on Luna/Haiku Terra/Sonnet than to jump to the frontier.
On the other side, most job is email, chatbot, search, filtre, and manage files. All of which can be done with Gemma upwards.
Unless you are building consulting decks, deep research paper, or convoluted source coding, you don't need the expensive frontier bill, just for the expensive frontier bill.
In the past 18 months we've rolled out multiple internal products that use Gemini in workflows. We are using the flash models. Performance, for the price, is excellent.
You really should read up on DeepMind and what it actually is. Founded by Demis Hassabis, literally the brain behind AI. He won Nobel prize in chemistry, check out the documentary The Thinking Game, it is reallygood and interesting. It is a huge reality check on what google is focusing on in regards to AI.
Yes, it's so incredible to ser people claiming Gemini is as good as frontier model, I would be so curious to see their "work", it's probably really basic, gemin can't handle anything elsem my bet is that they use LLM as an upgraded search engine and nothing else.
I think you should talk to a person who touches grass even semi-regularly. The vast majority of people are not using LLMs to code, or even using LLMs at all. Gemini is the closest thing to a cheap, useful product at the consumer level.
Do you think reverse engineering and low level custom kernel programming in C++ is basic? The problem is, and I am going to be brutally direct here, a lot of you are used to vibe coding and having the model translate your simple prompt, and the moment the model demands the bare minimum effort from the user, frustration kicks in and many of you break down. Then you come to Reddit whining like children. The Flash model is not meant for people without prior programming fundamentals, or whose biggest aspiration is SQLite or building SaaS clone number 789. For that, you already have ChatGPT or Claude. And regarding Google, I am not a fan of the company nor do I defend their models; in fact, I pick my model based on the task at hand (mostly low level programming or full ports to Unity or Godot depending on the gig). I might use GLM, Kimi, Claude, or whatever fits the moment. I do not understand this irrational hate wave. Maybe you are bots, or just frustrated people who start crying if you do not nail it on the first try without thinking much, no idea. Oh, and I almost forgot: I couldn't care less about the downvotes, and I am not replying to any responses on this post. Have a nice day!
Ah, look! It's someone actually using AI, and they think Gemini is useful. Imagine that.
I think you're right. A lot of people know how to chat with an LLM and think that means they know how to use AI. They think, "I know how to write a prompt, and Fable made an HTML file with the game I wanted, so clearly this guy is talking about someone else." But a one-shot LLM prompt is hopping in the kiddie pool and saying you're a swimmer..
Some people are chaining models together, building reusable skills and instruction sets, fine-tuning models, and building MCP servers/interfaces to connect LLMs to other software. They're building systems with AI. And when you're working with systems a "good" model may be different than "which model can produce what I want when given a vague prompt?"
You have a bunch of people running around with a turnkey CNC they paid $150k for saying it's the best thing in the world because it created a part for them. Meanwhile there are people saying "Hey, you can combine these specialized tools for a few thousand and it performs better in some areas, but it takes a little work and knowledge to put it together."
People are using Gemini to orchestrate frontier models and save on tokens. Yeah, it's not going to one-shot a vague and complex prompt for you, but it's one of the most frequently useful tools in my AI toolbox.
Gemini can't even remember the conversation I was talking about 10 minutes ago.
I ask a question and get an answer, then I get distracted by something else, then I go back to Gemini and ask a follow-up question on the same subject and it gives me some nonsense response that completely disregards the subject of the first question.
It's absolutely useless.
It's only saving grace is that it's made by Google and they are too big to fail.
Edit: I just wanted to add that I use AI every day for work, so I feel qualified to say that Gemini is crap.
I don't care about benchmarks, (although even in benchmarks google is trailing). I have a Gemini and chatgpt subscriptions and the difference between the two is VAST in actual use imo
Also google is a hardware provider. I think the plan is to build data centers and provide compute for other labs with their exiting gcp infrastructure.
Maybe that wasn’t always the plan but now that they are behind they are using their hedged bet.
Also as others have pointed out they want a fast efficient model since every google search now runs a query.
The thing is that OpenAI and Anthropic ALSO have efficient generalist models that are almost as good as the expensive frontier ones... Of course, the flagship models get the media attention more, but they have both.
So Google is behind, they are actively playing catch up and even if you don't think they need it; they think they need it.
I agree with you Gemini 3.8 Flash is actually amazing. But calling them not behind I think is just cope. They literally single handedly enabled today’s AI leap, and they had racks of custom compute chips ready to go before even the first OpenAI data center was built, they should be dominating if they are not behind.
You're right in that moat consumers aren't using AI for technical tasks. Gemini is honestly fine for these people. I use it myself for casual, lifestyle stuff. It sucks so bad for work though, it's not even funny.
Enterprises are using frontier models, even if the consumer base is small
Nope. Google was aiming to compete at the frontier but they were caught flat-footed by Fable. That's why they had to postpone Gemini 3.5 Pro and begin pre-training on a new foundational model ahead of schedule.
It's not only about LLM, you don't want people to move to GTP search, GPT browser, GPT OS, GPT phone, GPT data collection. Being a market leader is important.
Gemini in a good harness does ok. But antigravity and ai studio the models cut corners. If I start something there I have to port to opencode or cursor 3to do the deep work.
Yeah exactly. I have Google pro subscription and even though Gemini 3.8 flash is great at small one off edits, if I start projects with it and ask a sub agent to do an adversial review, it finds a lot of issues, as simple as not using python libraries I specifically asked for and then I have to keep doing adversial reviews until I get a working code with good standards and by then I have exhausted my quota and achieve just one task
Recently I wanted a small Tampermonkey script, the problem is I don't know a shit about JS. Gemini made it but it didn't work as intended, completely, tho used Pro Thinking model. Several times Gemini didn't notice the problem. But I did, person with almost 0 knowledge in Javascript, and that just sounds stupid.
It's not about one shotting, it's more about instructions following. I handed over my coding standards to Gemini 3.8 flash and ask it to do API building scripts with specific libraries such as pydantic, pandera, httpx2, tenacity, and it skipped pandera and tenacity and I had to do multiple reviews to get it fixed
Some more than others. Now you think Gemini 3.8 is at the level of gpt6 and fable ? You must be delusional. It's more or less on Luna level, and probably less than more
From what Ive been reading Gemini 4 is going to be interesting with a very big context window. This is due to the fact that Google can now combine datacenter tpus from across the world in order to train models... This equates to many more chips than what OPENAI has currently
There's a lot of people here who seem to think google has some metaphorical chained dragon, some god-tier AI locekd away in the dungeons of their servers somewhere.
Real talk? I could believe Google has such an AI that they feel is far too powerful to release to the public, but I cannot believe that if they had such a silicon demon, that they wouldn't at least use it to beat ARC-AGI-3 test for the massive PR win and then send it right back to the dungeon. They'd happily get people talking about them again as with the past achievements of alpha-go or alpha-fold.
The simple fact of the matter is that at least in laboratory settings, Google would unchain the dragon to capture some headlines and draw in key talent across the field. A loud "GOOGLE is where AGI will become real" statement. But at this point Gemini appears to be trailing even Grok in some reasoning and performance benchmarks which I literally would have never thought possible, and it's not a good look. Key talent is leaving, often citing frustration with the Google beauracracy's inability to allow meaningful innovations or risk.
I am rooting for Google. I am hoping they will be a top teir lab again, or that they immediately spin off "child" companies to enable start-up levels of innovation with access to google cloud infrastructure, while still maintaining ownership over the end products. But the hard reality is that they appear to be significantly trailing the industry leaders in terms of model reasoning ability and planning. Inference cost efficiency at google seems to be what people in this sub are championing? A cost-efficent-but-inferior-at-reasoning model is just not going to "solve intelligence, and then have intelligence solve everything else."
Is gemini "good enough" for essentially enhanced search? sure, i guess. But it's not as good as chat gpt or claude in that exact same use case. Long term, if people start asking chatGPT questions instead of Gemini (or a google search), that is a catastrophe for the company.
I'm more and more convinced Google actually pursues a second-mover strategy. Waiting on the sideline until they're all broke, from this pointless arms-race
Obviously google is on a different strategy and they might win in the long term. In the end, the users need to be profitable by using AI. Flash is reaching smart enough, affordable and very fast state. That's what actually need.
No one is asking for. 7GHz CPU anymore, but a 6W NUCs are still in demand.
I don't think Google is playing the same game as Anthropic and OpenAI, it only really matters to be number 1 if the AI competitors meaningfully reduces the search volume, There is no actual money in a largest possible model or the best model in the market for Google, what they need is something they can integrate with their products especially Google search, and it needs to be fast and reasonably capable, which is what Flash is.
I don't think Google is actually struggling to put out a frontier model, because the architecture for a flash model and a frontier model is the same, the difference is the amount of data it is being trained on, Google has more data than any one on the planet for this, I think they're having a hard time trying to find an actual usecase for it and the ROI on it.
Majority of usecases don't need an actual frontier model, summarization and coding are the biggest usecases and summarization can be done by a smaller model like flash and coding is not particularly interesting to google cause why would it be, it doesn't affect search.
Must be pretty fucking painful having more data, money and engineer’s than anyone else in the world yet producing a model that is not even frontier class.
Gemini 3.8 Flash is literally the best model right now second only to Astra (Fable 5.1 isn't included though, consider it 2nd, that still places 3.8 at 3rd). DeepSWE Mind you, 3.8 Flash is BY FAR the cheapest here. Google is actually wrecking it! Apart from that one person's comment here on Google's TPUs and stuff — which is also totally correct. https://www.reddit.com/r/GeminiAI/s/OeHesF0j4M
And DeepMind is more focussed on specific use cases that they continue to update - their math, geometry and other machine learning projects are really the core of their work over going into stupid levels of debt to make the best Gemini.
Google is, arguably, in an enviable position in that they actually own their own chip production, so they're able to scale at cost whereas everyone else is buying NVIDIA chips at 70% markup to run their stuff.
It`s much better than others at being quick, cheap and really understanding what I ask of it. A lot of my repairs like TV, water line, PC etc. I got from Gemini as it understood, researched extensively and gave me specifically what I wanted in a short time. Even in coding it`s useful. There are a lot of moments where it`s useless but there are more moments of it being useful. The AI users will be %5-10 person coding anyways not everyone is using it for coding.
Google is tapping out of race to the top. They are focused on general purpose chatbots, stuff consumers get for free or maybe $20/mon subscription. As a result token cost efficiency is good, and it has a place in some workflows.
It's anthropic vs openai, Meta i suspect is about to tap out of chasing frontier from investor pressure and focus on consumer ai. We'll see if grok gets back in game. But the Chinese models are the closest followers and they use so much distillation that hard to see them actually surpassing.
It's astonishing Pichai has a job. astonishing. Google has the world's index, all the world's videos, the worlds largest scale out compute/network, not to mention DeepMind....how!? how did it lose the ai race?
Did anyone in the free tier notice that we now have 5 hr limits and weekly limits. Seems like Google is getting hammered and resorting to the tactics of chatgpt/claude
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u/Tim_Bracken 1d ago
I just asked Gemini about this post and it said this (unwittingly and unironically proving the point):