In a move critics are calling both ironic and concerning, Google co-founder Sergey Brin has called on employees to work 60 hours per week to accelerate the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI), according to an internal memo first reported by The New York Times.
Brin, who has largely been absent from Google since 2019, described 60 hours as "the sweet spot of productivity" and warned that employees working fewer hours "can be highly demoralizing to everyone else." The directive represents a significant escalation from Google's current policy requiring three in-office days per week.
The push comes amid what Brin characterized as an accelerated "race to AGI" despite ongoing debate about the technology's near-term feasibility. The timing has raised eyebrows given Google's recent layoffs of over 13,000 employees while maintaining substantial profits.
"There's a painful irony here," said one industry analyst who requested anonymity. "Employees are being asked to work longer hours to build technology that could eventually make their own jobs obsolete."
Timnit Gebru, founder of the Distributed AI Research Institute and former lead of Google's ethical AI team, has questioned the motivations behind the AGI push.
"Why do we need to have the biggest model? What kind of pissing contest is this?" Gebru asked. She suggested the focus on AGI is driven primarily by money and influence rather than substantive technological progress.
"[Those building AGI are] the loudest, and have the most money right now," Gebru continued. "They try to make it look as if everything they're building is that — AGI or has AGI characteristics."
The memo also encouraged employees to use Google's Gemini AI model despite its documented issues and errors.
As pressure mounts within Google's AI divisions, questions remain about the human cost of this technological pursuit and whether the company's leadership fully appreciates the disconnect between demanding longer hours while simultaneously working to automate the jobs those same employees perform.
📖 References:
• Tech Won't Save Us. "Don't Fall for the AI Hype w/ Timnit Gebru."
Retrieved from: https://techwontsave.us/episode/151_dont_fall_for_the_ai_hype_w_timnit_gebru.html
• Futurism. "Google Cofounder Exhorts Employees to Work 60-Hour Weeks to Create AI Designed to Replace Them"
Retrieved from: https://futurism.com/google-sergey-brin-60-hour-week-ai
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