Google to lay off hundreds of engineers

(Patria) - Google has announced that it will lay off hundreds of engineers, and hundreds of layoffs are also being prepared for workers from its other departments.

Hundreds of engineers in the central team of the software giant and workers in the Voice Assistant application department will lose their jobs.

Layoffs are also planned in the hardware team responsible for Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit, and for most of the augmented reality (AR) team.

Google acquired the health and fitness tracking company Fitbit in 2021 for $2.1 billion and subsequently launched new versions of the Pixel Watch, a product that competes with some Fitbit devices and the Apple Watch.

- In the second half of 2023, many of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, and to align resources with key product priorities.

Some teams are continuing with organizational changes that include eliminating some jobs worldwide, a Google spokesperson told Reuters.

He did not specify how many jobs would be eliminated, nor did he provide a figure for Google Assistant and other teams.

The layoffs coincided with the increased use of generative artificial intelligence in companies like Microsoft and Google following the success of OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Last year, Google announced that it would enrich its virtual assistant with generative artificial intelligence capabilities.

A year ago, Alphabet announced it would lay off 12,000 workers, which corresponded to six percent of its global workforce. In September 2023, Alphabet employed 182,381 workers.