Layoffs, pivots, and the ongoing race for AI supremacy: Inside Google's tumultuous 2023
Google CEO Sundar Pichai gathered employees for the company's final all-hands of 2023, on December 12. It had been a stormy year inside the tech giant, starting with an unprecedented round of layoffs and ending with the company announcing its biggest artificial intelligence project to date.
There were reasons to celebrate. Google Cloud turned a profit this year for the first time. The company had launched a flurry of new AI products and updates. And, as Pichai and other executives highlighted during the meeting, Google had ended 2023 with the reveal of Gemini, its new large language model (LLM).
Still, there were signs that this year had battered morale. At one point, executives shared the results of a company-wide survey, known as Googlegeist, which appeared in employees' inboxes each week.
Check out: Inside Google's Tumultuous 2023: Layoffs, Pivots, and the Ongoing Race for AI Supremacy