Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai dismisses AI job fears, emphasizes expansion plans
In a Bloomberg interview on Wednesday evening in the center of San Francisco, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai pushed back against the concern that AI could eventually make half of the staff of 180,000 people. Instead, Pichai emphasized the dedication of the company to growth for at least next year.
“I expect that we will grow from our current engineering phase, even until next year, because it enables us to do more,” said Pichai, adding that AI makes engineers more productive by eliminating unpleasant tasks and enabling them to concentrate on more impactful work. Instead of replacing employees, he referred to AI as “a accelerator” who will stimulate the development of new products, creating the demand for more employees.
Alphabet has performed countless fired in recent years, although the cuts so far seem to be more focused in 2025 than in previous years. Allegedly it broke up with less than 100 people In the Cloud Division of Google earlier this year and, more recently, Hundreds more In his platforms and devices. In 2024 and 2023 the cuts were much more serious, with 12,000 people Right out of the company in 2023 and at least another 1,000 employees fired last year.
Looking ahead, Pichai pointed to the growing companies of Alphabet such as Waymo Autonomous vehicles, quantum computer initiatives and the explosive growth of YouTube as proof of innovation possibilities that are constantly bubbling. He only noticed on the YouTube scale in India, with 100 million channels and 15,000 channels with more than a million subscribers.
At one point, Pichai said he was trying to think too far ahead of ‘useless’. But he also acknowledged the legitimacy of fears about relocating job, saying when he was asked about the anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s Recent comments That AI could hollow out half of the entry books within five years: “I respect that … I think it is important to express and debate those worries.”
While the interview finished, Pichai was asked about the boundaries of AI, and whether it is possible that the world may never achieve artificial general intelligence, which means that AI is as smart as people. He stopped soon before he answered. “There is a lot of progress ahead with the paths we are going on, not just the series of ideas that we are working on today, [but] Some of the newer ideas with which we are experimenting, “he said.
“I am very optimistic about seeing a lot of progress. But you know,” he added, “you have always had these technological curves where you can hit a temporary plateau. So we are currently on an absolute path to Agi? I don’t think anyone can certainly say it.”
