Tech powerhouse company Google has laid off hundreds of workers in several divisions Wednesday night, seeking to lower expenses as it focuses on artificial intelligence.
The Silicon Valley company laid off employees in its core engineering division, as well as those working on the Google Assistant, a voice-operated virtual assistant, and in the hardware division.
Google said that most of the hardware cuts affected a team working on augmented reality, technology that combines the real world with a digital overlay.
“We’ve had to make some difficult decisions about ongoing employment of some Google employees and we regret to inform you that your position is being eliminated,” the company told some workers in the division, according to text reviewed by The New York Times.
Google confirmed the Assistant cuts, earlier reported by Semafor.
“We’re responsibly investing in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead,” a Google spokesman said in a statement.
After cuts throughout the second half of 2023, “some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organizational changes, which include some role eliminations globally.”
Earlier Wednesday, Amazon shed hundreds of workers from its Twitch streaming service, Prime Video, and MGM studios.
Xerox said this month that it would cut 15 percent of its 23,000-person staff, and the video game software provider Unity Software said it would eliminate 1,800 roles or 25 percent of its workforce.
The Alphabet Workers Union, a group representing more than 1,400 workers at Google’s parent company, Alphabet, described the layoffs as “needless.”
“Our members and teammates work hard every day to build great products for our users, and the company cannot continue to fire our co-workers while making billions every quarter,” the group said in a post on the social media site X.
