Google boosts Gemini 3 Deep Think AI and it’s a huge milestone for 3D printing
Going from a sketch to a 3D file and making conversational edits is now possible, even if you’re not a CAD designer.
Mebner1 / Pixabay
Google has just updated the Deep Think mode for its Gemini 3 model, and it’s a massive step forward for chores involving 3D printing. For the unaware, Deep Think mode focuses on enhanced multimodal understanding and reasoning, and its latest upgrade pushes it further for engineering, research, and scientific tasks. The core focus is going from theoretical to practical applications. One of those application areas is 3D printing.
Essentially, Gemini 3 Deep Think is going to turn your rough sketches into a proper 3D model and generate a file ready for feeding to a 3D printer. What you have here is a tool that can basically take a look at physical objects or a 2D image, and turn them into a 3D blueprint while making changes you request in natural language.
Gave Gemini 3 Deep Think an image of a 3D spider web and asked for an interactive design tool. It generated a full design suite (procedural control, simulation, optimization) with STL export capability. I used it to engineer new metamaterials and a spider-web inspired bridge… pic.twitter.com/fMrdCjuzMG
— Markus J. Buehler (@ProfBuehlerMIT) February 14, 2026
Why is this a big step forward?
For anyone interested in 3D printing, even for personal usage, going from idea to execution is a hassle. You must know CAD modeling, own the right software, and have a powerful computing machine to turn those ideas into a 3D file. The whole process is pretty intensive and time-consuming, in addition to posing a steep learning curve. And when it comes to product prototyping in engineering labs, or even companies testing new products, the whole ordeal of physics modeling and prototyping ends up taking a lot of time and resources.
With Gemini 3 Deep Think, Google wants to replace those technical challenges, letting users go from ideas to the 3D printing stage without having to deal with complex physics-based modeling and software. But it’s not just the sheer convenience of turning drawings into 3D files that is going to speed things up.
Iterating on an existing design is an equally crucial step, and Gemini 3 Deep Think is aiming to ease that, as well. The benefits are huge, not just for DIY enthusiasts but also for material scientists, engineers, and product developers.
A huge practical shift for AI
“I used it to engineer new metamaterials and a spider-web inspired bridge design, 3D printed it, then validated the structural integrity with a @nvidia DGX Spark load test. A mind-blowing example of the future of material and architecture design – image in, fabrication-ready design out,” Markus Buehler, an engineering professor at MIT, wrote on X.
Gemini 3 Deep Think is getting an upgrade 🧠 By blending deep scientific knowledge with advanced engineering utility, Deep Think now moves beyond abstract theory to drive practical applications.
Researchers are already using it to accelerate their work in the real world:
— Google AI (@GoogleAI) February 12, 2026
Taking a conversation approach to fixing and tweaking the complex models of objects, and then having a CAD model ready for printing in minutes, is a huge step forward. Gemini 3 Deep Think is available to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the Gemini app, and it will also be made available via API for the first time to interested companies and researchers.
Nadeem is a technology and science reporter at Digital Trends.
Your favorite old ChatGPT models are going away
GPT-4o, GPT-4.1 and more are leaving ChatGPT as the company pushes users toward newer AI.
OpenAI is officially removing several older language models from its ChatGPT interface as of February 13, 2026, marking a significant shift in how users interact with its AI. The retirement affects several models, including GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini, alongside previously announced retirements of GPT-5 Instant and GPT-5 Thinking variants. These changes apply to the ChatGPT product itself, while access via API remains unchanged for the time being.
Known for its expressive tone, multilingual capabilities, and multimodal features, GPT-4o was temporarily brought back after user pushback during the GPT-5 rollout last year. But with most users already gravitating toward newer versions like GPT-5.2, OpenAI says it’s time to sunset these older systems and concentrate its development efforts on more current technology.
A key flaw of self-driving cars could just be poor understanding of humans
As per research, autonomous vehicles burden humans with something called a vigilance task.
The automobile industry is promising that autonomous vehicles will be much safer on the road with fewer errors made by human beings. However, despite being pretty advanced, self-driving cars’ interaction with human psychology hinders seamless usability. According to freshly published research, the gap is not due to a glitch in the system or the engineering, but between understanding the technology and optimizing it for human behavior behind the wheel.
Autonomous, at the cost of vigilance
Amazon could soon launch a marketplace for publishers to sell content to AI firms
The marketplace could give AI companies a structured way to license content.
Amazon is reportedly planning a big new move in the AI world. According to recent reports, the company is talking to publishers about launching a marketplace where media sites can sell their content directly to companies building AI tools.
The idea is to create a central hub where media outlets can license articles, data, and other content to AI companies. At the moment, many AI models use information scraped from the web without clear agreements or compensation. This has sparked legal disputes and raised questions about ownership and how publishers should be fairly compensated.
