Google has delayed the launch of its much-anticipated Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) system until January after discovering issues handling non-English language queries during testing, sources familiar with the plans tell The Information.

Originally slated to debut publicly next week, Gemini was set to be revealed across a series of launch events in California, New York, and Washington D.C. aimed at developers, policymakers, and journalists. However, concerns over the model’s reliability in languages beyond English led CEO Sundar Pichai and other execs to push the date back.

“The team found the AI didn’t reliably handle some non-English queries,” explains an insider. “Global language support is crucial for Gemini to match or beat OpenAI’s GPT-4 in capability.”

While sources say Gemini has met that standard in some areas during testing, Google remains hard at work finalizing the initial version before launch. Pichai said last month the company was “focused on getting Gemini 1.0 out as soon as possible, make sure it’s competitive, state of the art.”

Unveiled during May’s Google I/O conference, Gemini represents the tech giant’s next-generation foundation model that aims to understand and generate text, images, code, and more. Google claims Gemini displays “impressive multimodal capabilities not seen in prior models” during demos.

However, properly supporting multiple languages poses unique challenges for AI systems. The delay indicates Gemini still has work to do tackling queries and tasks beyond English. With GPT-4 supporting Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, and other languages at launch, the pressure is on.

The launch postponement also pushes back integration into Google products like Search, Bard chatbot, and Workspace office software. But if launching a more comprehensive, capable Gemini means waiting until January, Google seems willing to take the extra weeks.

When the model does debut, expect fanfare on the level of competitors like Microsoft and Meta announcing their own AI innovations. Google needs Gemini to be a success after some public stumbles in AI recently. Pichai likely wants to ensure it makes a strong first impression whenever it comes.