{"id":15753,"date":"2026-07-24T13:54:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T08:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15753"},"modified":"2026-07-24T13:54:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T08:54:37","slug":"googles-gemini-delay-exposes-a-deeper-problem-employee-frustration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15753","title":{"rendered":"Google&#039;s Gemini delay exposes a deeper problem: employee frustration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/fFd_haR-JDbvGduNvHKrJE5IzqA=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2025\/07\/09\/1752097895886.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Poor morale among employees is contributing to delayed model releases from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/18\/google-deepmind-prepares-for-rogue-ai-agents\" target=\"_blank\">Google&#8217;s DeepMind AI lab<\/a>, according to conversations with half a dozen current and former Google DeepMind employees.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>As the company&#8217;s cash flow just turned negative, investors and competitors are questioning Google&#8217;s standing in the AI race.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>State of play: <\/strong>Google&#8217;s Gemini 3.5 Pro, its most powerful model in the works, is months behind, per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-07-16\/google-gemini-launch-delayed-as-tech-falls-short-of-internal-goals\" target=\"_blank\">Bloomberg<\/a>, but the company did just release a series of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/21\/google-gemini-ai-models\" target=\"_blank\">smaller<\/a>, more efficient models, garnering mixed reactions. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Top executives from competing AI labs were quick to shade the releases, with Meta&#8217;s Alexandr Wang saying &#8220;Gemini who?&#8221; on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/alexandr_wang\/status\/2079707749412483104?s=46\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a>, and others asking top Google leadership when more powerful models will be ready. <\/li>\n<li>Despite beating estimates in its latest earnings on Wednesday, the company&#8217;s free cash flow turned negative, in large part due to its AI investments: It&#8217;s on track to spend $190 billion this year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Yes, but:<\/strong> Google showed 82% growth in cloud revenue, but search revenue came in slightly below Wall Street&#8217;s expectations, exacerbating concern about the company&#8217;s AI capex paying off, Mandeep Singh, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, said on Bloomberg TV.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Zoom out: <\/strong>The perceived dip in AI capabilities comes amid the ongoing AI talent wars, which have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/23\/ai-lab-agi-google-deepmind-departures\" target=\"_blank\">hit Google the hardest<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Several top researchers have departed for competing AI labs.<\/li>\n<li>Those departures include influential researcher and Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer, who&#8217;s now at OpenAI, and Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner John Jumper, who left for Anthropic. <\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Turn_Trout\/status\/2077448610157891734\" target=\"_blank\">Multiple<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayrhofer.eu.org\/post\/leaving-google\/\" target=\"_blank\">employees<\/a> have publicly said they resigned over Google&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/28\/technology\/google-ai-deal-pentagon.html?eafs_enabled=false\" target=\"_blank\">April deal<\/a> with the Pentagon that allows the military to use its technology. Sources who spoke to Axios anonymously said the deal comes up often during exit interviews. <\/li>\n<li>The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying:<\/strong> &#8220;We&#8217;re behind,&#8221; one employee told Axios, referring to the company&#8217;s model capabilities compared with competitors. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Some sources tied the recent dip in morale to the company&#8217;s military deal, but others said the burnout is about feeling one step behind competitors.<\/li>\n<li>Google didn&#8217;t prioritize agentic coding as it raced to defend search from ChatGPT, a DeepMind employee who worked on model training said.<\/li>\n<li>Gemini&#8217;s models do not crack the top 10 most used in the LLM leaderboard tracked by <a href=\"https:\/\/openrouter.ai\/rankings#leaderboard-table\" target=\"_blank\">OpenRouter<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom in: <\/strong>It&#8217;s a &#8220;constant battle&#8221; for those morally against the Pentagon deal, one source said, adding this has led to &#8220;emotional burnout.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Alex Turner, a former research scientist at DeepMind, resigned over Google&#8217;s military contracts. <\/li>\n<li>He told Axios that CEO Demis Hassabis, who released an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/14\/demis-hassabis-ai-regulation-google-deepmind\" target=\"_blank\">AI safety framework<\/a> last week, doesn&#8217;t have a consistent internal presence the way it seems competing AI CEOs Sam Altman and Dario Amodei do with their employees. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The other side:<\/strong> Google disputes the notion that morale problems are leading to shortfalls in its models or that employees are leaving in large numbers due to the company&#8217;s Pentagon contract.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Google says its attrition rates for the first half of this year are lower for AI talent than they were at this time last year and that more than 90% of those offered an AI role at Google accept the position.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The big picture: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/05\/28\/ai-spending-roi-enterprise-costs\" target=\"_blank\">Cost<\/a> has been a key focus for a lot of enterprises suddenly experiencing AI sticker shock.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>While the new models Google released this week aren&#8217;t at the leading edge in performance, delivering models that offer more bang for the buck meets a clear need in the market.<\/li>\n<li><strong>&#8220;<\/strong>We&#8217;re feeling good about this week&#8217;s Flash launches, our roadmap and the incredible demand we&#8217;re seeing for our models,&#8221; a Google spokesperson told Axios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Reality check: <\/strong>Model providers leapfrogging each other is the norm for the AI race. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Leads tend to be fickle and short-lived. <\/li>\n<li>It was just last year that Google was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/11\/10\/google-openai-chatgpt-gemini\" target=\"_blank\">riding high<\/a>. Then Anthropic seemed unbeatable with the arrival of Mythos. <\/li>\n<li>Now, OpenAI appears poised to be the leapfrogger with a new model it plans to brief lawmakers on next week.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The bottom line:<\/strong> Google can afford to be leapfrogged. It can&#8217;t afford to lose its talent or its investors&#8217; patience.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Poor morale among employees is contributing to delayed model releases from Google&#8217;s DeepMind AI lab, according to conversations with half a dozen current and former Google DeepMind employees. Why it matters: As the company&#8217;s cash flow just turned negative, investors and competitors are questioning Google&#8217;s standing in the AI race. State of play: Google&#8217;s Gemini&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/fFd_haR-JDbvGduNvHKrJE5IzqA=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2025\/07\/09\/1752097895886.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}