Pichai pushes back on claims Google is losing ground in AI race

July 22 : Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai used Wednesday's earnings call to mount a robust defence of Google's AI strategy, pushing back on concerns that the company has fallen behind rivals after delaying a flagship model and ceding ground in AI coding.Investors have become increasingly uneasy over Google delaying the release of Gemini 3.5 Pro, a model originally slated for June that was expected to bolster the company's standing in AI coding and autonomous "agent" tasks, two of the industry's most fiercely contested areas.The latest setback has fueled worries that Google was losing momentum just as OpenAI and Anthropic and a host of Chinese rivals have accelerated the pace of model releases. On the call on Wednesday, Pichai struck an unusually defensive tone as analysts pressed him on the sta