He apparently “misspoke.”
Eyes Will Roll
Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt is walking back his questionable claim that remote work is to blame for Google slipping behind OpenAI in Silicon Valley’s ongoing AI race.
On Tuesday, Stanford University published a YouTube video of a recent talk that Schmidt gave at the university’s School of Engineering. During that talk, when asked why Google was falling behind other AI firms, Schmidt declared that Google’s AI failures stem from its decision to let its staffers enjoy remote work and, with it, a bit of “work-life balance.”
“Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning,” the ex-Googler told the classroom. “And the reason startups work is because people work like hell.”
The comment understandably sparked criticism. After all, work-life balance is important, and Google isn’t a startup.
And it didn’t take long for Schmidt to eat his words.
“I misspoke about Google and their work hours,” Schmidt told The Wall Street Journal in an emailed statement. “I regret my error.”
In a Stanford talk posted today, Eric Schmidt says the reason why Google is losing to @OpenAI and other startups is because Google only has people coming in 1 day per week 👀 pic.twitter.com/XPxr3kdNaC
— Alex Kehr (@alexkehr) August 13, 2024
Ctrl Alt Delete
In the year 2024, Google is one of the most influential tech giants on the planet, and a federal judge in Washington DC ruled just last week that Google has monopoly power over the online search market. Its pockets are insanely deep, meaning that it can compete in the industry talent war and devote a ridiculous amount of resources to its AI efforts.
What it didn’t do, though, was publicly release a chatbot before OpenAI did. OpenAI, which arguably isn’t exactly a startup anymore either, was the first to wrench open that Pandora’s box — and Google has been playing catch-up ever since.
So in other words, not sleeping on the floors of Google’s lavish facilities isn’t exactly the problem here.
In a Wednesday statement on X-formerly-Twitter, the Alphabet Workers Union declared in response to Schmidt’s comments that “flexible work arrangements don’t slow down our work.”
“Understaffing, shifting priorities, constant layoffs, stagnant wages and lack of follow-through from management on projects,” the statement continued, “these factors slow Google workers down every day.”
Later on Wednesday, as reported by The Verge, Stanford removed the video of Schmidt’s talk from YouTube upon the billionaire’s request.
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