Google has announced a wave of new layoffs despite record profits, fueling concerns that staff are being replaced by AI.
The tech giant laid off roughly a thousand employees from its sales, hardware and engineering teams last month and confirmed that a few hundred were laid off from each team.
Google reported that it made a profit of $20.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, up 52 percent from the previous year, but its workforce shrank by four percent.
Other major AI investors, such as Amazon, Microsoft, Discord and eBay, have also laid off tens of thousands of employees in the past 12 months.
Major tech companies continue to lay off workers due to advances in AI and despite rising revenues
The staff is now pushing back against the layoffs and Google software engineer Diane Hirsh Theriault wrote on LinkedIn that the “glassy-eyed leaders are trying to point in a vague direction (AI) while killing their golden goose.”
The Alphabet Workers Union responded to the layoffs at to write: ‘Tonight Google started a new round of unnecessary layoffs.
“Our members and teammates work hard every day to build great products for our users, and the company cannot continue to lay off our colleagues while we make billions every quarter. We won’t stop fighting until our jobs are safe!’
Kenneth Smith, an engineering manager at Google, said management informed him of the job cuts in an email and complained on a LinkedIn page. after that the company “failed to recognize their humanity.”
“I’ve had a lot of anger and frustration with Google leadership over the way they handled the layoffs of twelve thousand people last January,” he wrote, adding, “And I don’t see much evidence that they’ve learned much. from that experience.’
Google last week released its Large Language Model (LLM) Goose, which was built solely for internal use and trained on more than 25 years of technical expertise.
“It can answer questions about Google-specific technologies, write code using internal tech stacks, and support new capabilities such as editing code based on natural language prompts,” according to an internal summary.”
Major layoffs followed after tech companies announced AI investments. By the second week of January, more than 5,500 people had been laid off.
Both Amazon and Google announced last month that they would lay off hundreds of employees, shortly after each separately confirmed they were investing millions of dollars in AI startup Anthropic.
Microsoft laid off about 10,000 employees a year ago, while last month it cut another 2,000 jobs in its gaming division, while Discord – a messaging app used by gamers – cut 17 percent of its workforce.
The layoffs at Google spread across its ad sales team, while Amazon cut positions at Prime Video and MGM Studios.
Since May 2023, 4,600 jobs have been lost due to AI, and nearly 41,800 workers have been laid off at 159 tech companies so far this year, according to data from Layoffs.fyi.
The layoffs come despite Big Tech companies seeing a big jump in profits, with Google and Microsoft’s parent company Alphabet Inc. reporting that its shares rose by percent and revenue is expected to grow by 12 percent in the first quarter of 2024 percent will grow.
Analysts at Mizuho Securities reported that Google’s profits rose because the company has a “strong position in the search and advertising markets and has a long history of innovation and AI investments.”
Google’s reported profit is the fastest growth rate since Alphabet reported its $13.6 billion loss in 2022
“It can answer questions about Google-specific technologies, write code using internal tech stacks, and support new capabilities such as editing code based on natural language prompts,” according to an internal summary.
Although layoffs peaked in 2023, they are set to continue into 2024, with Google reporting that more layoffs will follow this year
While the number of layoffs directly attributed to AI this year remains relatively low, it is likely that more job losses are on the horizon, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which reported that AI was responsible for 381 job losses in January.
The report said the majority of AI-related job losses were the result of companies focusing on developing AI technology, or because it directly replaced tasks and roles that employees previously performed.
This is not unusual among major tech companies, many of which have cut jobs as part of cost-cutting measures to instead invest the money in AI talent and expensive GPU computer chips.
GPU chips focus on graphics and numerical calculations to train AI software.
Tech layoffs are impacting workers across industries, even as they invest millions of dollars in advancing AI technology
“These companies are generally reducing the number of employees associated with product lines or divisions that have not been successful because they want to reposition themselves for AI,” Art Zeile, CEO of the DHI Group, which owns the technology recruiting platform Dice, told me. . CNBC.
Google is reportedly planning more layoffs in 2024, but CEO Sundar Pichai claims it won’t be as bad as the mass layoffs in 2023, when the company cut 12,000 jobs in January alone.
Pichai said this is necessary because the company needs to focus on “removing layers to simplify execution and increase speed in some areas.”
Google’s senior vice president Philipp Schindler recently spoke about the company’s job cuts and restructuring efforts. revenue calling.
“I want to be clear: as we restructure, there is always an opportunity to be more efficient and smarter in the way we serve and grow our customers,” Schindler said.
‘We are not restructuring because AI is taking away roles, that is important here.
He continued, “But we see significant opportunity here with our AI-powered solution to actually deliver incredible (return on investment) at scale, and that’s why we’re making some of those adjustments.”
According to a recently leaked memo, AI technology is Google’s primary focus for 2024, with Pichai citing goals such as developing advanced, secure, and responsible AI and building the most helpful personal computing platforms and devices. Benzinga reported.
“We have ambitious goals and will invest in our major priorities this year,” Pichai wrote in an internal memo obtained by The edge.
“The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we must make difficult choices,” Pichai wrote.
Dailymail.com has contacted Google for comment.