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As the fears of AI taking on human jobs proceed to rattle the tech business, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai says AI isn’t right here to take jobs — at the very least, not at Google. The tech big plans to maintain hiring engineers properly into subsequent yr, even because it doubles down on synthetic intelligence.
Speaking on the Bloomberg Tech convention in San Francisco, Pichai straight addressed issues that AI might result in mass job cuts, as seen in different tech giants like Microsoft. He emphasised that AI shouldn’t be a substitute for human employees, however an “accelerator” that enhances their productiveness.
“I expect we will grow from our current engineering base even into next year, because it allows us to do more,” Pichai advised Bloomberg’s Emily Chang.
While acknowledging that AI is altering the best way work will get achieved, Pichai described the know-how as one thing that makes engineers extra productive, not out of date.
“I just view this as making engineers dramatically more productive, getting a lot of the mundane aspects out of what they do,” he stated.
Pichai added that reasonably than slicing jobs, AI is rushing up product improvement, creating demand for extra expert employees.
A glimpse into AI’s limitations
Despite his optimism, Pichai acknowledged that AI nonetheless has its limitations. He famous that whereas AI excels at duties like coding, it’s removed from good and continues to make primary errors.
On the larger image of the place AI is headed, Pichai supplied a grounded view. When requested whether or not AI is transferring us towards synthetic common intelligence (AGI) — a stage the place AI matches human pondering — he stated: “So are we presently on an absolute path to AGI? I don’t suppose anybody can say for certain.
“There’s a lot of forward progress ahead with the paths we are on, not only the set of ideas we are working on today, [but] some of the newer ideas we are experimenting with,” he added.
Recent layoffs had been on account of a shift in focus
Alphabet has let 1000’s of workers go in recent times, together with 12,000 jobs in 2023 and one other 1,000 or extra in 2024; however 2025’s layoffs have been extra restricted and strategic. Earlier this yr, fewer than 100 workers had been laid off in Google Cloud, and some hundred extra in its platforms and gadgets unit.
Despite this, Pichai reiterated that the main target now’s on constructing, not slicing. He pointed to Alphabet’s ongoing initiatives, akin to Waymo self-driving automobiles, quantum computing, and YouTube’s thriving creator financial system, significantly in India, the place 15,000 channels have over one million subscribers.
Fears about AI’s affect on the workforce
Some tech leaders have sounded alarms in regards to the long-term menace AI poses to the workforce. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei lately warned that as much as half of entry-level white-collar jobs might disappear inside 5 years.
Pichai didn’t dismiss the priority. “I respect that … I think it’s important to voice those concerns and debate them,” he stated.
A PYMNTS Intelligence report lately discovered that 54% of US employees imagine generative AI might result in widespread job losses. The sentiment is even stronger amongst tech employees, significantly those that already usually use AI instruments.
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