Google said it will lay off hundreds at its Voice Assistant
unit, while a few hundred roles are being eliminated in the hardware team
responsible for Pixel, Nest and Fitbit, with the majority of people in the
augmented reality (AR) team being let go. Hundreds of roles in the search
giant's central engineering team are also being impacted, the company said.
Google bought health and fitness tracking company Fitbit for
$2.1 billion in 2021 but has continued to roll out new versions of its Pixel
Watch, a product that competes with some of Fitbit's devices and also the Apple
Watch.
"Throughout second-half of 2023, a number of our teams
made changes to become more efficient and work better, and to align their
resources to their biggest product priorities. Some teams are continuing to
make these kinds of organizational changes, which include some role
eliminations globally," a spokesperson for Google told Reuters in a
statement.
The spokesperson did not specify the number of roles being
impacted. It is not immediately clear how many people are part of the Google
Assistant software and other teams.
The reorganization of certain teams comes at a time when
companies like Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Google are betting on the rising adoption
of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology following the success of
OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Last year, Google announced plans to add generative AI
capabilities to its virtual assistant. AI would allow the assistant to do
things like help people plan a trip or catch up on emails and then ask
follow-up questions.
In January 2023, Alphabet announced plans to cut 12,000
jobs, equivalent to 6% of its global workforce.
As of September 2023, Alphabet had 182,381 employees globally. - Reuters
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