Gemini 2.0 Launches: Google Declares the Agentic Era, Debuts Project Mariner

Google released Gemini 2.0 on December 11, 2024, with an unambiguous tagline: 'our new AI model for the agentic era.' The debut 2.0 Flash doubled speed while beating 1.5 Pro, with native multimodal output and tool use.

The headliners were three agent prototypes: Project Mariner, which autonomously operates a browser to complete tasks; the real-time multimodal assistant Project Astra; and the coding agent Jules. The Verge noted Google was first to move 'AI that does the work' from demo to product roadmap.

Looking back from 2025 — the year agents exploded — Gemini 2.0 was the starting gun: it switched the industry narrative from chatbots to autonomous agents.