KUALA LUMPUR – Google’s parent company Alphabet is laying off hundreds of employees, especially those in its voice assistant unit, Pixel, Nest, Fitbit, the augmented reality (AR) team as well as roles in its central engineering team.
Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman are also exiting the company amid the tech giant’s cost-cutting measures.
While the company statement did not specify how many jobs are impacted, Google had been pouring resources into its generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology following the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Last year, Google had plans to add generative AI capabilities to its virtual assistant, allowing users to plan trips, for example, and ask follow-up questions.
Meanwhile, Google bought Fitbit for US$2.1 billion (RM9.75 billion) in 2021 but has continued to roll out new versions of its Pixel Watch, which has similar features to both the Fitbit devices and the Apple Watch.
Last November, Google laid off a handful of employees, most data scientists, who worked on its voice assistant.
In January 2023, Google had cut 12,000 jobs, which is about 6% of its global workforce. – January 11, 2024