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Google co-founder Sergey Brin has made clear the work culture employees must adopt if the company is to stay competitive in the AI race. According to an internal memo seen by The New York Times, employees must work at least 60 hours a week and abandon remote work.
Brin pushes for longer hours. Brin reportedly told employees that Google’s current work policy lags behind AI development expectations. “I recommend being in the office at least every weekday,” he wrote in the memo posted internally. He added that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity” in the message to employees working on Gemini and other Google AI products, according to the Times.
That translates to 12-hour workdays, five days a week, reinforcing his preference for in-office work. “A number of folks work less than 60 hours and a small number put in the bare minimum to get by. This last group is not only unproductive but also can be highly demoralizing to everyone else,” Brin said.
Fear of falling behind. Brin’s request stems from his belief that “competition has accelerated immensely and the final race to AGI [artificial general intelligence] is afoot.” He added, “I think we have all the ingredients to win this race, but we are going to have to turbocharge our efforts.”
Google isn’t the only company pushing for longer hours to accelerate AI development. Amazon made a similar move, requiring employees to return to the office by January 2025.
More hours doesn’t mean more productivity. Global experiments with four-day workweeks have shown that longer workdays can increase exhaustion and mistakes without boosting productivity.
However, Brin argued that this pace enables exponential progress at critical stages of technological development. He said that longer hours are inefficient unless paired with better tools—specifically, the ones Google has created. “The most efficient coders and AI scientists in the world by using our own AI,” Brin added.
A strategic shift. Brin co-founded Google with Larry Page, but both stepped back from day-to-day operations more than a decade ago. After the launch of ChatGPT in 2023, Brin took a more active role in strengthening Google’s AI leadership.
His stance aligns with Google’s evolving workplace policies. In 2023, the company required remote employees to return to a hybrid model of three in-office days per week. Now, AI teams face even greater demands, with Brin suggesting 12-hour office workdays. Some employees see his push as a return to Google’s early workaholic culture.
Image | TED Conference
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