'It's The Sweet Spot'—Google's Sergey Brin Wants Engineers In The Office 60 Hours A Week. They're Building AI That May Make Them Obsolete

Google co-founder Sergey Brin the company's AI engineers in the office full-time and working 60-hour weeks to help the company stay ahead in the race to artificial general intelligence. He believes this workload is the “sweet spot of productivity” and necessary to outpace competitors like and Microsoft MSFT.

A Push for More Hours and Office Presence

According to The New York Times, Brin made his stance known in a memo to engineers working on Gemini, Google's AI models and apps, urging them to pick up the pace. "Competition has accelerated immensely and the final race to A.G.I. is afoot," he wrote. "I think we have all the ingredients to win this race, but we are going to have to turbocharge our efforts."

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While Google officially requires three days a week in the office, Brin encouraged employees to come in every weekday, insisting it would help accelerate development. His push aligns with a broader trend of major companies like Amazon AMZN, JPMorgan Chase JPM, and Goldman Sachs GS reversing hybrid work policies in favor of full-time office attendance.

The irony of Brin's demands isn't lost on anyone. AI advancements could eventually replace many of the engineers currently working on them. Companies like Salesforce CRM and Klarna have already slowed hiring, citing AI efficiency. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently admitted the company isn't planning to hire engineers this year due to AI's growing capabilities.

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Despite this, Brin remains optimistic about AI's potential to enhance productivity rather than eliminate jobs. He urged employees to use Google's AI models to improve their coding efficiency, believing this will make them "the most efficient coders and A.I. scientists in the world." However, skeptics argue that while AI can automate simple coding tasks, human engineers are still needed to fix problems and refine large-scale projects.

Brin's increasing involvement in Google's AI efforts comes after years of taking a step back from daily operations. He returned to Mountain View following the launch of ChatGPT, which left Google scrambling to reclaim its AI leadership. He has since been hands-on with the DeepMind division, personally filing code requests and working closely with the team to accelerate Gemini's development.

His urgency also stems from Google's past missteps in AI. At the last All-In Summit, Brin admitted that the company had been "too timid" in rolling out language models despite pioneering the technology with its 2017 "Transformer" paper. He explained that Google hesitated out of fear of making mistakes but now sees the need for risk-taking. "These models can make really stupid mistakes," Brin said, "but they are also incredibly powerful."

His push for longer hours has sparked debate, especially among employees who have seen job security shrink due to industry-wide layoffs. Brin acknowledged the risk of burnout, warning employees not to overwork themselves. However, he also criticized those he felt weren't contributing enough, saying, "A number of folks work less than 60 hours and a small number put in the bare minimum to get by. This last group is not only unproductive but also can be highly demoralizing to everyone else."

As AI development moves at breakneck speed, the pressure on Google's workforce is only increasing. Whether Brin's push for longer hours will help Google regain its AI dominance or further divide its employees remains to be seen.

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