Carlo CocuzziAI Expert, Pod Cast Host, Real Estate Investor and Funding Specialist

Google Has "Big Company Smell"

21 Aug 2026 · 2 min

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1:45

In this spoken commentary, Speaker A argues that Google is falling behind in the frontier AI race despite inventing the transformer. The speaker attributes the lag to several factors: (1) algorithmic‑layer shortcomings, partly caused by an over‑cautious AI‑safety culture that hinders rapid model releases; (2) misaligned incentives that prevent Google from matching the aggressive funding offers of competitors like Meta’s Zuck, OpenAI, and Anthropic; (3) an annual, I/O‑tied release cadence for Gemini that is tone‑deaf in a market where breakthroughs occur monthly; and (4) lingering legacy corporate culture—described as a "big‑company smell"—that slows decision‑making and focus. The speaker suggests Google may still thrive as a hyperscaler serving other labs, but at the model layer it is losing ground to newer, more nimble players.

Chapters

I'll maybe frame a complementary but nonetheless alternative theory. So, we're already, I guess, reading the epitaph, the eulogy for why Google lost the frontier race. If I had to write it, I think it had several strikes against it at the algorithmic layer. Peter, I would still hold out hope that at the hyperscaler layer, Google's doing a booming business and Google will just service all of the other winning frontier labs. But at the model layer, Why do I think Google's losing? I think in the earlier stages, yeah, it was a— despite Google having invented the transformer, Google had a late start to Dave and Peter, your point, sort of internal effective altruist slash politically correct AI safetyism run amok, preventing themselves from launching anything. I think that's part of it. I think incentives are part of it. I suspect that Google struggles to compete against Zuck with his billion-dollar offers or even Anthropic and OpenAI with their— very focused offers. I think Google probably has struggled just as an organisation to focus on being competitive. I think their release cycle is completely tone deaf. If you look at Google's Gemini release schedule for the past few years, they've been approximately on an annual cadence, and that just does not cut it in an era when frontiers are getting pushed forward on a month-by-month basis. And I think timing all of their frontier releases to coincide with I/O in the style of like iOS releases is just— I think Google's had— Big company smell, right? Yeah, big company smell. I think Google's had a number of legacy cultural issues that have probably held it back versus the neophytes, the newcomers, Anthropic and OpenAI in particular.