Google Faces Competitor Mockery Over Delayed Gemini 3.5 Pro Release
Google is facing mockery from competitors like Meta and OpenAI due to delays in releasing its next-generation Gemini 3.5 Pro model. Despite the delay, Google has already announced the pre-training of Gemini 4, drawing further skepticism from the industry. The delay has shifted public and analyst perception of Google from an AI frontrunner to a follower, especially as rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic launch new flagship models. However, Google's focus on cost-effective, faster models like Gemini 3.5 Flash continues to find practical utility among developers. While Google recently launched three faster models, including Gemini 3.6 Flash, critics find it unusual that the company is promoting Gemini 4 before Gemini 3.5 Pro is even released. Analysts note that Google's massive scale allows it to operate differently, making it too early to count them out.
## BACKGROUND
LLM pre-training is the initial phase where a language model learns patterns, grammar, and facts by processing massive amounts of internet data before being fine-tuned for specific tasks. Anthropic is an AI safety-focused public benefit corporation founded by former OpenAI members, best known for its Claude series of large language models.