In recent years, the technology industry has gone from the comfortable landing cushion for STEM graduates to a famous business greed, where exhausting hours are commonplace, and layoffs could knock at any time.
Unfortunately for alphabet employees, Google’s parent company, compression is just beginning.
In an internal memo sent Wednesday and obtained by the New York TimesThe co -founder of Google Sergey Brin – which has been mainly absent from the company since 2019, except when Edition of edicts On the importance of AI – clearly indicated that he wanted his child to concentrate even harder on the development of general artificial intelligence (AG), the a long time “Next step” in AI intelligence.
“I recommend being at the office at least every day of the week,” said Brin, which implies that good employees should also spend a few weekends in the office.
“60 hours a week is the ideal point of productivity,” said Brin, saying that “” number of people work less than 60 hours and a small number put in the bare minimum to get out … This last group is not only unproductive but can also be very demoralizing for everyone. “
Google’s current policy imposes only three days in office, so that the boss’s note appears as a heavy suggestion – in particular in a society that has been criticized for distribute Performance assessments, leading to arbitrary dismissals.
The crunch comes after waves of layoffs has sent more than 13,000 packaging employees in recent years. However Google published $ 26.3 billion in profits as recently as in October, it continue to reduce And outsource full -time jobs in order to siphon its operating budget in AI development.
To this end, too bit urged its employees To use the Google AI model, Gemini, more in their coding efforts, according to the NYT. Which is ironic, given the Gemini History of problemsLike the moment he told a user that a brick book and two pounds of feathers had the exactly the same weight.
Haranguage is also a little rich, because ultimately, the objective of AI tech is to replace the workers even building it – assuming that it arrives so far, of course.
“Competition has accelerated considerably and the final race towards AGA is underway,” wrote Brin, simultaneously crunching the whip and the superintendent of AI, in a familiar register to other potential AI magnates Sam Altman And Elon Musk.
If AGA never happens, it would have huge implications for work and the wider economy. The problem is that, despite all the media threshing that promises otherwise, there is little indication that developers really get closer to revolutionary technology. In fact, most proofs have rather pointed out to a to slow down In progress.
Although the concept of act has been bounced for years, it was generally considered to be impossible Or distant. This has changed when Openai published Chatgpt, who became mega-viral and stimulated businesses like Google to shred billions of dollars chase it AGE Pipe Dream At Pleasure of investorsoften to the detriment of their workers.
“Why do we need to have the biggest model? What kind of pissing competition is it?” asked Timnit Gebru on a Episode 2023 podcast Tech will not save us.
Gebru is the founder and executive director of the distributed AI Research Institute – and used to work on the Google AI Ethics team, but was dismissed by the company after Publish an article Highlight the environmental, social and financial risks posed by AI.
“Because [those building AGI are] The noisiest, and have the most money at the moment, “Gebru has continued”, they also influence any type of AI speech because they try to give the impression that everything they build is that – ac or has acted characteristics. “”
This certainly seems to be the case for Google, where billionaire leaders use large armies of subcontractors for flatten The rough edges of its increasingly expensive AI products.
Whether AGA never happens or not, we can be sure that the promise will be very lucrative for technological magnates like strand, and a carrot always present – or perhaps a stick – to be suspended in front of the remaining Google employees who cling desperately to their work.
It was not immediately clear how many hours a week, Brin spends working in his office, because Google did not respond to a request for comments.
Learn more about Google’s work practices: Something bad is preparing inside Google
