Did Google’s AI agents really build an operating system for $916?

AI as Normal Technology · 4 months ago · 53

Google claimed its AI agents built an operating system for $916 using Gemini 3.5 Flash and Antigravity 2.0, but the company's disclosure was misleading about key details including that the "single prompt" was thousands of lines long and the system used specialized scaffolding with subagents and anti-cheating measures. The cost reported was $916.92 with a total token budget of 2.6 billion tokens, but Google did not release the lengthy prompt, agent logs, or code, making independent verification impossible. The experiment demonstrates that AI agents can work autonomously on long-horizon tasks but highlights the need for rigorous methodological standards in open-world evaluations rather than relying on vendor-conducted press releases.