Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, sent an email to company employees today announcing a workforce reduction that will affect approximately 12,000 people.
[Google presenta su propio ChatGPT, una IA que puede responder todas tus preguntas]
In addition to the general announcement, data subjects will also receive their own email in which they will be informed of the decision; Although the mail has already been sent to workers in the United States, those affected in the rest of the countries have not yet been notified by the different labor laws that govern each market.
Massive layoffs at Google
This decision means that Google’s workforce will be reduced by 6%, becoming the largest reduction in the company’s history
The current situation is very different from any other the company has experienced. Although Google has been an industry leader for years, it has started to show cracks lately, closing several divisions and restructuring its internal departments. Projects that took years to prepare have been canceled overnight, and Google’s leadership in areas such as artificial intelligence is in question.
The Google Pixelbook was one of the company’s failed projects
Google’s bid to diversify its hardware portfolio didn’t pan out, and a few months ago it had to shut down the laptop development division; Thereafter, Google focused on becoming a “new Apple”, with Pixel devices as a mainstay of its new strategy receiving exclusive features.
The latest blow to Google was perhaps the most painful, with the success of ChatGPT and other AI models. It is precisely in this technology that Alphabet has invested the most over the last decade, so it is strange that it has not been a pioneer in bringing it to the masses. The popularity of ChatGPT forced managers to announce an internal “code red” for the development of an alternative. Finally, Sparrow will be this alternative, a project which initially was not going to be a commercial product but an object of study.
New AIs like ChatGPT seem to be “one step ahead” of Google
In the announcement, Sundar Pichai accepted full responsibility for the layoffs but will continue to lead, confessing that the large number of new contracts were made “for a different economic reality” than the one the industry faces today. . Despite this, he is confident in the “tremendous opportunity” for the future thanks to “the strength of our mission, the value of our products and our investments in Artificial Intelligence”.
It is currently unclear which divisions will be most affected by these layoffs and whether any projects or products will need to be canceled as a result.
Google isn’t the only industry giant to announce layoffs this week. Microsoft also told 10,000 people they were going to lose their jobs, and Amazon started cutting back on some sections like its comics app, Comixology.
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