Gemini 4 Carbon Beats Claude and GPT-6: Why Is Google Holding It Back?

Google’s Gemini 4 Carbon placed first on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index on Wednesday with a score of 59, ahead of Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5 at 58 and OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra at 57. Most paying customers cannot yet buy it: Google is giving Carbon first to vetted cyber defenders through its Fairwind Program and gave no date for broader access, citing safety. Carbon’s largest lead was on hacking-related tests; on ExploitGym, which checks whether a model can prove a software flaw is usable in an attack, it scored 54.8%, versus 42.4% for Astra and 34.5% for Opus. Google said it is joining US voluntary pre-release model testing; its previous model Gemini 4 Argon opened to paying developers October 13.