Google co-founder Sergey Brin has called on the tech giant’s engineers to return to the office five days a week. The objective is to enhance the development of artificial intelligence (AI) models, potentially equipping them to replicate the very work of these engineers.
Brin, who is 51 years old and maintains a significant stake in Google, has begun returning to the Mountain View headquarters. This shift follows the emergence of tools like ChatGPT, which caught Google off guard and spurred worries that the company had fallen behind in a field it initially pioneered but which was brought to market by OpenAI.
Brin, with an estimated net worth of $144 billion, is focused on injecting a sense of urgency into Google’s AI efforts. He emphasized the need to escalate the pace of AI development to be competitive with companies like OpenAI and Microsoft. “Competition has accelerated immensely and the final race to A.G.I. is afoot,” Brin wrote in an internal memo, cited by The New York Times, addressed to engineers working on Gemini, Google’s umbrella term for its AI models and applications. “I think we have all the ingredients to win this race, but we are going to have to turbocharge our efforts.” He suggested that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity.”
Brin further proposed that engineers leverage Google’s own AI models to aid in their coding. This, he believes, would enable them to become “the most efficient coders and A.I. scientists in the world.”
The irony of Brin’s call is noteworthy. Generative AI employs vast amounts of web-based writing, identifying patterns to generate new content—including code. Companies such as Salesforce and Klarna have highlighted AI’s capacity to replicate engineers’ work as the technology continues to improve. Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, publicly stated during a recent earnings call that the company has no plans to hire engineers this year, owing to the successful implementation of AI agents.
It’s vital to approach these statements with some skepticism. Company leaders often have financial incentives to curb hiring, capitalize on investor excitement around AI, and improve profit margins. Salesforce, for instance, reduced its workforce by 10%, or approximately 7,000 employees, in early 2023, following pressure from activist investors.
While coding bots are capable of boosting efficiency by automating routine code, critics argue that engineers still need to understand the underlying code to troubleshoot issues and make improvements. As an example of expert concern, Anthropic requires applicants to certify they will not use AI in the application process. Moreover, AI’s limited memory capacity poses a challenge in managing large codebases.
Despite these limitations, there are concerns that some companies will prioritize replacing human engineers with AI, regardless of the technology’s performance, due to the high cost associated with human labor in most organizations. Proponents of AI argue that the technology will generate more opportunities for engineers, enabling companies to develop additional products that were previously unfeasible due to time or resource constraints.
Brin’s directive bears a resemblance to the manager who asks a senior employee to train their younger, more affordable replacement. The shift in the office policy has become contested within the tech sector and beyond, as executives seek to regain control from employees who gained greater flexibility during the pandemic. This clash has been particularly resonant in Silicon Valley, where remote work tools, like Zoom, were developed.
Engineers once held considerable leverage due to a high demand for their skills. However, mass layoffs in the years following the pandemic, including at Google, have altered this dynamic. Many major tech companies have since been demanding employees’ return to the office, arguing a boost in productivity. These companies also made substantial investments in office spaces before the pandemic.
