Google’s prized AI unit is wiped out by 12,000 job cuts

[ad_1]

(Bloomberg) — Alphabet Inc. is retooling its prized AI unit as part of the company’s sweeping job cuts announced Friday, according to an internal memo.

Most read by Bloomberg

Jeff Dean, the executive leading Google’s artificial intelligence and search efforts, said that aside from a modest number of cutbacks in the search unit, the company determined it had overinvested in its data platform to support teams, called Google for Clinicians. The robotics unit will also see consolidation between Alphabet and Google, he said.

Alphabet announced on Friday it was cutting about 12,000 jobs, more than 6% of its global workforce, becoming the latest tech giant to downsize after years of buoyant growth and hiring. Chief Executive Sundar Pichai told employees the cuts would affect jobs globally and across the company. At the same time, Pichai identified artificial intelligence as a key investment area where the company is facing a recent increase in competition.

Dean cited ongoing challenges with the current economic climate as the reason for the staff reductions. As a company and organization, we need to laser focus on the priority areas we want to invest in, said Dean. We must continue to focus on ambitious long-term research and development that will help us create game-changing products for billions of people.

Responding to a request for comment on job cuts in its research and AI units, company spokesman Jason Freidenfelds highlighted the breadth of progress and the ambitious scope of Google’s AI efforts.

Dan Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Co., said Google’s cutbacks to its AI staff are eye-catching and puzzling, given that the technology forms the backbone of Google Search, its dominant product.

The story continues

These changes need to be evaluated more closely, Morgan said, and he tells me the ad revenue slowdown is spreading to the rest of the company.

Google has long been considered the industry leader in artificial intelligence technology. Pichai once defined the deeper field than fire or electricity. But Google has also faced existential threats from outsiders, with the latest challenge coming in the form of an experimental chatbot called ChatGPT from research lab OpenAI, which could receive a significant investment from Microsoft Corp.

The platform, which can deliver information in clear sentences with a simple hint, has reportedly prompted Google’s management to declare a code red within the company. Google has so far declined to introduce its own competitive technology to the field, although it is working on similar chatbot initiatives.

Dean stressed in the memo that Google remains committed to advancing AI and reassured staff that the research unit has been instrumental in those efforts. Even in just the last year or so, together we’ve made strides in our basic research on the advancement of AI and other important areas, he said. We have a focused and very ambitious, if not bold, long-term research agenda to focus on ahead of us.

(Updates with analyst commentary in sixth paragraph.)

Most Read by Bloomberg Businessweek

LP Bloomberg of 2023

[ad_2]