Also totally agree. What a bad way to name models...
At this point even using Starbucks sizes would be better.
> An internal document shows that Google has tested a series of Gemini 4 models, internally named Argon, Barium, and Carbon.
Then I suppose they tacked on Hydrogen since it's supposed to be a "light" model and hydrogen is the lightest element. I agree that it's super confusing though.
[0] https://www.businessinsider.com/google-employees-test-new-ge...
alphabetical skipping the weird names
next would be iron krypton and lithium
There is no hint of what each one does. I get that these were internal code names, fine, but to everyone outside Google it's not helpful to have these meaningless names.
ChatGPT and Claude aren't much better - there is still quite a lot of assumed knowledge there assuming you know what e.g. a sonnet is and what an opus is - but at least if you squint there is something there.
Google's names just seem to be randomly generated.
Maybe they were worried that the 3.1 Pro model being around for so lunch ruined the brand? But 3.8 Flash was pretty decent I thought so it's not like "flash" was burnt. I dunno.
In order of power and cost: Hydrogen -> Argon -> Carbon
It's no longer ordered alphabetically.
And it never was ordered by atomic mass, which is clearly the best ordering if you're naming your model classes after elements.