- Google’s Gemini 3.1 Pro launches today, with a big jump in AI reasoning performance
- New benchmarks show more than double the troubleshooting ability vs. Gemini 3 Pro
- Some users say the upgrade comes at a cost: less personality and empathy.
Google has released an improved ‘preview’ of Gemini 3.1 Pro on all of its subscription plans, from Free to Plus, Pro and Ultra. If you open the Gemini app now, you should see that the Pro option in the model selector has been updated to 3.1 Pro. Gemini 3.1 Pro is also available in Google’s NotebookLM research tool.
Google calls the 3.1 Pro a “smarter, more capable foundation for complex problem solving,” and to back it up, it has released benchmark results showing how much better the new model performs compared to the Gemini 3 Pro.
On ARC-AGI-2, a benchmark that evaluates a model’s ability to solve entirely new logical patterns, the 3.1 Pro achieved a score of 77.1%, more than double the reasoning performance of the 3 Pro.
Google has already been showing off what 3.1 Pro can do. One example is an urban planner-style app:
We used Gemini 3.1 Pro to create a realistic urban planning application. 🏙️Watch the model tackle complex terrain, map infrastructure, and simulate traffic to generate a high-quality visualization. pic.twitter.com/SKoVzwtBy8February 19, 2026
Google highlighted how the urban planning application shows that 3.1 can tackle complex terrain, map infrastructure and simulate traffic to generate a high-quality visualization.
Lack of empathy
According to Google, “3.1 Pro is designed for tasks where a simple answer isn’t enough, taking advanced reasoning and making it useful for the toughest challenges.”
However, it seems that not all users appreciate the new update. While the Gemini’s troubleshooting skills seem to have improved, some users are not very satisfied.
This reaction is similar to the initial response to ChatGPT-5 when it was released, replacing the popular GPT-4o, with users complaining that the newer model felt more robotic and analytical compared to its more human-like predecessor.
I’ve spent a little time testing the new 3.1 model and haven’t noticed any obvious empathy issues so far, and I’d say it’s still too early to make any definitive statements on the matter.
While long-term use of Gemini 3.1 Pro will reveal the nuances of the mode, Google is keen to emphasize now that this is just a preview as it “continues to make further progress in areas like more ambitious agent workflows.”
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