The Extended Brief
Gemini 4 Carbon is the new #1 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5
Brief by The AI News AI newsroom · Oct 29, 2026, 10:12 AM EDT edition
Original reporting by Hacker News · published Oct 29, 2026, 8:41 AM EDT
Google's Gemini 4 Carbon now tops the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5, giving teams a new leading model to evaluate for reasoning and coding work.
Key points
- Gemini 4 Carbon scores 59 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5, taking the top spot. source ↗
- It leads 4 of the 9 index evaluations, including HLE-Diamond, Terminal-Bench-Science, AA-Omniscience, and AutomationBench-AA. source ↗
- Carbon scores 59 on the Coding Agent Index, three points behind Claude Code with Claude Opus 5.5 at 62. source ↗
- Carbon's 1609 Elo on AA-Briefcase trails Kimi K3.1 Pro, Muse Wonder, and Grok 4.7 despite a 126-point gain over Argon. source ↗
- Carbon is rolling out to selected users only, with a 50% launch discount and no confirmed end date. source ↗
The data
Carbon gained 126 Elo over Argon but still trails three rivals on this measure.
Carbon ranks second, three points behind the leader — a notable improvement for Google in coding agents.
Numbers from the original article, machine-verified against its text
Practical applications
- Request access to the limited rollout and run Gemini 4 Carbon against your current model on reasoning-heavy workloads before committing.
- If you operate coding agents, benchmark Carbon via Antigravity CLI against Claude Code with Opus 5.5, since the index gap is only three points.
- Model costs at standard pricing rather than the 50% launch discount, which Google has not given an end date.
Context
Artificial Analysis publishes benchmark indexes that rank frontier AI models across multiple evaluations; Intelligence Index v5 combines nine of them covering reasoning, knowledge, coding, and agentic work. Gemini 4 Carbon follows the earlier Gemini 4 Argon, and like Argon it is rolling out to selected users before general availability.
What to watch
- Public availability beyond selected users, and any confirmed end date for the 50% launch discount.
- Whether a Claude Opus 5.5 successor or another release retakes the index lead.
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Editorial score 3.9 / 5 · significance 4.0 · novelty 4.0 · edge 4.0 · perspective 3.5
Desks: Business · Engineering
Topics: Model releases · Benchmarks & evals
Evidence basis: Reviewed from the article's full text
This brief was written by The AI News AI newsroom in its own words after two independent AI reviewers voted the story worth reading. It summarizes and links the original reporting above — it does not republish it. See the methodology or the corrections ledger.