July 16 (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google is months behind schedule on the release of Gemini 3.5 Pro, its most powerful flagship AI model, as the tech giant works to improve its capabilities, particularly in coding, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
The delay comes amid fierce competition among AI developers to boost model performance, cut costs and expand enterprise capabilities, fueling a steady, industrywide stream of new systems and reasoning models.
Here are some details:
• The model was due to be released in June, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai had said during Google’s annual I/O developer conference in May.
• The setback has some Google engineers, AI researchers and managers worried as rivals OpenAI and Anthropic release models outperforming Gemini, the report said, citing 10 current and former employees.
• Google late last month updated the data used to train Gemini to improve those capabilities, but the results fell short of expectations, Bloomberg News reported.
• Shares of Alphabet slipped nearly 3% following the report.
• “We’re currently testing 3.5 Pro, an upgraded Flash model, and other models with partners, and we’re productively engaged with the U.S. government,” a company spokesperson told Reuters in a statement.
• “We’re shipping quickly across a wide range of models while keeping them highly cost-effective for customers,” the spokesperson said.
• OpenAI launched GPT-5.6, its most advanced model, last week after a delay prompted by the U.S. government’s requests over national security concerns about the potential misuse of powerful AI tech.
• Anthropic had disabled its most advanced AI models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5, for all users after a June 12 U.S. export control order citing national security concerns.
• The curbs were lifted in late June after Anthropic added safeguards.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Pooja Desai)
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