Google laid off lots of of its workers on Wednesday January 10 within the voice-activated Google Assistant group as a part of the data and knowledge product group restructuring, and the Units and Providers PA (DSPA) group that manages Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit {hardware}.
This got here after Fitbit’s co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman left Google as a part of the restructuring, as was confirmed by the corporate. Google which had 182,000 workers in September 30, 2023 has now been considerably diminished after the large cuts.
Google additionally let go of most of its AR {hardware} group and can work with different OEMs as reported by 9to5Google. The report additionally talked about that Google will now have one core {hardware} engineering group as a substitute of separate groups engaged on Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest.
The Alphabet Employee Union, felt that the layoffs weren’t needed and that the corporate “can’t proceed to fireside our coworkers whereas making billions.” They shared this sentiment in an X submit.
In the direction of the tip of final 12 months Google began infusing AI-powered options in Google Assistant by way of Bard to be able to develop Assistant “past voice.”
Final 12 months alone, Google let go of workers within the Waze mapping service in June, its recruiting group in September and its information division in October and 12,000 different roles in January 2023.
