Ex-CEO Eric Schmidt says Google losing AI race because of staff working from home

Following the Covid outbreak, many companies switched to remote working and started letting employees work from home. However, once the Covid lockdown was over and everyone started returning to the office, some still allowed employees to work from home or choose a hybrid work schedule. In Google's case, the company's former CEO, Eric Schmidt, believes this is the exact reason why the tech giant is losing the AI race to competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Speaking to Stanford University (via Stanford Online channel on YouTube) students back in April, Schmidt responded to a question on why Google is lagging behind the AI competition. He replied, "Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning," The tech CEO continued, "The reason the startups work is because the people work like hell."

Google's 2022 Diversity Annual Report (PDF warning) revealed a new hybrid work model, allowing employees to spend three days in the office and two days in a location of their choice. Last year, however, Google said it oversees employees' attendance at the office and considers it a criterion for merit in performance assessments.

Google's former CEO also confronted the students with some realities of the industry:

"I'm sorry to be so blunt, but the fact of the matter is, if you all leave the university and go found a company, you're not going to let people work from home and only come in one day a week if you want to compete against the other startups."

Eric Schmidt is not the only influential figure who has criticized remote work. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, in a 2023 interview with The Economist , expressed that this work model doesn't work for "younger kids in apprenticeships" or management teams. Similarly, Elon Musk, in a CNBC interview last year, went as far as to label remote working as "morally wrong" when others are required to be physically present at work.

OpenAI's recent strides, such as GPT-4o or SearchGPT, a direct competitor to Google Search and Bing, have intensified the competitive landscape of the AI industry. In response, Google is ramping up its efforts to counter these threats, as seen in its support for new products like Gemini Live.

Source: Business Insider