Since the 2022 launch of ChatGPT set off an artificial intelligence frenzy in Silicon Valley, Google has tried to reassert its role as an A.I. pioneer.
On Wednesday, Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, said the company could lead the industry in artificial general intelligence — when machines match or become smarter than humans — if employees worked harder.
“I recommend being in the office at least every weekday,” he wrote in a memo posted internally on Wednesday evening that was viewed by The New York Times. He added that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity” in the message to employees who work on Gemini, Google’s lineup of A.I. models and apps.
Mr. Brin’s memo does not represent a change to Google’s official return-to-office policy, which requires employees to work in the office at least three days a week. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.
Still, the note highlighted Mr. Brin’s belief that A.G.I. — a long-sought goal in computing — could be within reach. And it shed more light on how he believes Google could achieve that technological leap.
“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.”
He highlighted the need for Google’s employees to use more of its A.I. for coding, saying the A.I.’s improving itself would lead to A.G.I. He also called on employees working on Gemini to be “the most efficient coders and A.I. scientists in the world by using our own A.I.”
More companies have ordered employees back to the office full time to improve productivity. In September, Amazon said its corporate employees must return to the office five days a week starting in 2025. AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have also reversed hybrid-work policies.
Mr. Brin returned to Google after ChatGPT’s launch, The Times has reported, to help the company navigate the difficult moment when it lost its advantage in A.I. (Google had developed numerous technologies that make chatbots like ChatGPT adept at writing things like poetry, code and travel plans.) Ever since, he has spent a lot of time with the company’s A.I. specialists in its Google DeepMind division tasked with developing A.I., sometimes personally filing code requests.
In the two years since Mr. Brin returned, Google has reorganized its business, rebranded its A.I. and rolled out the technology across its popular apps — all in an effort to win the race against OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta and others.
Google has been releasing A.I. updates at a rapid clip, expanding the availability of Gemini 2.0 models to people who use the chatbot app with the same name just this month. Mr. Brin warned employees against working more than 60 hours a week, saying it could lead to burnout. He also criticized employees who haven’t been contributing enough to the efforts.
“A number of folks work less than 60 hours and a small number put in the bare minimum to get by,” he wrote. “This last group is not only unproductive but also can be highly demoralizing to everyone else.”
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