Alphabet Inc.’s Google is conducting “organizational changes” and laying off hundreds of employees working across various sectors of its business as part of the tech giant’s efforts to slash costs.
Google confirmed the global job cuts in a statement to multiple media outlets.
“Throughout the 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,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “Some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organizational changes, which include some role eliminations globally.”
Employees working in its digital assistant—including its augmented reality (AR)—hardware, internal software tools, and engineering teams, as well as those working on Google’s Voice Assistant program, are among those affected by the cuts, the company confirmed.
Employees in the hardware team who are responsible for devices such as the Pixel Watch, Nest, and Fitbit will be affected.
Google acquired health and fitness tracking company Fitbit in 2021 for $2.1 billion and at the time said it would work closely with the firm to create new devices and services aimed at enhancing consumer “knowledge, success, health and happiness.”
‘Another Round of Needless Layoffs’
In a separate statement to The Verge, Google spokeswoman Courtenay Mencini said that “a few hundred roles are being eliminated in DSPA [hardware] with the majority of impacts on the 1P AR Hardware team.”Ms. Mencini noted that Google remains committed to its AR initiatives, despite the cuts.
“While we are making changes to our 1P AR hardware team, Google continues to be deeply committed to other AR initiatives, such as AR experiences in our products, and product partnerships,” she said.
Google said workers affected by the latest job cuts will have an opportunity to apply for other positions at the tech giant.
However, the Alphabet Workers Union, which represents some of its employees, condemned what it called “another round of needless layoffs” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Our members and teammates work hard every day to build great products for our users, and the company cannot continue to fire our coworkers while making billions every quarter,” the group said. “We won’t stop fighting until our jobs are safe!”
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Google also confirmed that Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman are also leaving the company.Ms. Mencini told The Verge: “We remain very committed to serving our Fitbit users well, innovating in the health space with personal AI, and building on the momentum with Pixel Watch, the redesigned Fitbit app, Fitbit Premium service, and the Fitbit tracker line.
“This work will continue to be a key part of our new org model.”
The Epoch Times contacted Google for further comment but didn’t receive a reply by press time.
However, the tech giant, like many others, appears to be focusing on the future widespread implementation of generative AI—an artificial intelligence chatbot that is capable of generating various content, including text, imagery, and audio—following the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and last year announced plans to implement generative AI capabilities to its virtual assistant.
