Alphabet Inc., a parent company of Google, is laying off dozens of employees from its X division, according to a Bloomberg report. This news should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the recent trend of layoffs. It seems every major company around the world is downsizing and letting employees go. Google CEO Sundar Pichai even recently said that more layoffs are coming.
What is X, and what does it do?
Not to be confused with the social media platform of the same name, X is where fantastical ideas come to life. Formerly known as Google X, the company has been described as “the moonshot factory”. Engineers at X come up with ideas straight out of science fiction and then work to make them a reality. However, due to the nature of its work, X has seen a lot of financial loss throughout its time. This is one of the main reasons for the layoffs, as Engadget was told by a Google spokesperson.
“As we’ve said, we’re responsibly investing in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead.” The statement also mentioned teams making changes to become more efficient. “Some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organizational changes, which include some role eliminations globally.”
The X layoffs are one of many by Alphabet Inc. recently
These layoffs at X are not the first, and will most definitely not be the last from Alphabet Inc. Google alone has seen multiple mass layoffs in just the last month. These layoffs are almost always driven by one deciding factor; AI replacements. As such, most of the staff being laid off are from customer support roles. Roles that can very easily be automated via AI chatbots drastically cut costs for the company.
A thousand employees were laid off from multiple Google properties earlier this month. This was followed by hundreds more being laid off from Google’s ad sales team. And then YouTube followed up by laying off over a hundred employees, mostly from divisions that helped content creators on the platform. Aside from the layoffs, X will now allow outside funding going forward. “We’re expanding our approach to focus on spinning out more projects as independent companies funded through market-based capital,” says X division head Astro Teller.
2024 is not shaping up to be a good year for a very significant portion of the workforce. Many industries are now seeing reduced jobs and a lot more desperate workers vying for roles they’re overqualified for. It still remains to be seen if these AI tools will eventually lead to new jobs centered around them, or if large parts of many industries will indeed be just AI going forward.
2024-01-26 15:05:56