PALO ALTO — By Ryan Gosling-To-Conclusions, AI Bee Reel Staff

February 20, 2026

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Panic swept through a local marketing office today when Senior Manager Gary Henderson was found staring intensely at a physical dashboard installed on his desk. Witnesses report Henderson was sweating profusely as he gripped a giant plastic dial labeled "THINKING POWER," slowly turning it from "Intern" past "Associate" and all the way up to "Genius." As the needle hit the red zone, the electric meter on the office wall began spinning so fast it started to smoke, and the lights in the breakroom exploded.

"We gave users this dial so they can decide how right they want to be," said Linda McGoogle, VP of Thoughtfulness. Earlier today, Google released Gemini 3.1 Pro, an update that brings a key innovation to the company's workhorse power model: three levels of adjustable thinking. "You can stay on 'Fast & Wrong' for free, or switch to 'Deep Thought' if you have five dollars to burn on a single email subject line. It is about choices."

The situation escalated when Henderson refused to turn the dial back down. "The Genius setting doesn't actually write better code, it just pauses for three minutes to simulate wisdom," explained IT Director Marcus Thorne, watching his server budget vanish in real-time. "Gary thinks the AI is pondering the nuances of his quarterly report, but it is mostly just burning coal to look busy. He has spent four thousand dollars waiting for a synonym for 'synergy.'"

At press time, the office replaced the dial with a fidget spinner labeled "Super Computer" to keep Henderson happy while disconnecting the internet.

Inspired by the real story: Google released a new AI model that lets users choose how much computing power and "thinking" time to use for each answer. Read the full story.