Google’s parent company Alphabet will cut 12,000 jobs after a hiring spree during the pandemic and amid slowing economy. Alphabet is scaling back its workforce amid reorganizing its artificial intelligence unit.
Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said he took “full responsibility” for the cuts, in a note to employees posted on the company’s website.
The layoffs were designed “to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company,” Pichai wrote in a note to employees.
Pichai announced severance packages for US employees, who will receive at least 16 weeks of salary, their 2022 bonus, paid vacations and six months of health coverage.
The cuts will affect 6% of Alphabet’s workforce worldwide, in teams including recruitment and engineering. This comes days after Microsoft announced 10,000 jobs would be lost, and weeks after Amazon announced 18,000 job cuts.
Tech companies are facing a variety of challenges at the moment amid rising interest rates and inflation globally.
Refoccus on AI
Alphabet, which has long been a leader in artificial intelligence (AI), is facing competition from Microsoft, which is reportedly looking to boost its stake in ChatGPT. The ChatGPT bot, which was released by San Francisco company OpenAI two months ago, has amazed users by simply explaining complex concepts and generating ideas from scratch.
Sundar Pichai said Alphabet had expanded too rapidly during the pandemic, when demand for digital services boomed, and must refocus on products and technology like AI. “We’re getting ready to share some entirely new experiences for users, developers and businesses, too. We have a substantial opportunity in front of us with AI across our products and are prepared to approach it boldly and responsibly.”