Google has announced a second round of cuts within a week of slashing about 1000 jobs in its Pixel, Nest and Fitbit divisions.
The tech giant is now targeting the company’s advertising and sales teams, according to a report in Business Insider. Several hundred jobs are expected to go, says the report.
News of the sackings were contained in a leaked memo by Google’s chief business officer, Philipp Schindler.
A restructure of sales and marketing will see Google Customer Services as the core channel for growing sales, while the large customer sales team will concentrate on the company’s largest, most sophisticated customers, says reports of Schindler’s memo.
The earlier announced cutbacks included the departure of Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman who came to Google after it acquired their company for US$2.1 billion in 2019.
Last year, Google’s parent Alphabet merged its Brain and DeepMind teams to consolidate its AI push after it appeared to fall behind in its development of Generative AI.
It’s been a disappointing time for Alphabet and Google which several years ago were trailblazing in the development of artificial intelligence.
Microsoft in partnership with ChatGPT developer OpenAI are now leading the pack.
Yesterday Microsoft announced a commercial version of its generative AI tool, Copilot Pro, with an A$33 monthly subscription. The product represents a new, lucrative revenue stream for Microsoft.
Former Google researchers meanwhile this week announced a new artificial intelligence start-up with “a new approach”.
Nikkei Asia reports that the Tokyo-based Sakana AI had raised US$30 million to develop AI models.
The report said seed funding was being led by US venture capital firm Lux Capital. Interestingly, Google chief scientist Jeff Dean is among investors.
