Google starts 2024 with job cuts across multiple teams
Amazon also announces cuts and Duolingo replaces humans with AI
In a major restructuring move, Google has announced the layoff of hundreds of employees spanning various divisions, including the Voice Assistant unit, hardware teams handling Pixel, Nest and Fitbit, as well as a substantial portion of the augmented reality (AR) team.
Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman are also set to depart from the company.
Google's central engineering team is not exempt from the cuts either, with hundreds of roles affected.
This decision comes as Google continues its cost-cutting measures, aiming to streamline operations and focus on core product priorities.
The Fitbit acquisition, which took place in 2021 for a whopping $2.1 billion, hasn't shielded the company from the restructuring, as Fitbit's co-founders find themselves leaving amidst the casualties. Despite the acquisition, Google has been actively competing in the wearables market with its own branded products, releasing new iterations of its Pixel Watch that directly rival Fitbit's devices and the popular Apple Watch.
"Throughout the second half of 2023, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, and to align their resources to their biggest product priorities. Some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organizational changes, which include some role eliminations globally," a spokesperson for Google told Reuters.
The exact number of roles impacted has not been disclosed, leaving uncertainty about the extent of the job cuts in the Google Assistant software and other affected teams.
This workforce reduction is part of broader organisational changes within Google, following a trend in the tech industry.
Amazon's cuts
Major players like Google, Amazon and Microsoft are placing strategic bets on the growing adoption of generative AI technology. The shift is highlighted by Google's previous announcement in 2023 to integrate generative AI capabilities into its virtual assistant, allowing for more sophisticated tasks like trip planning and email management.
Amazon has said it will chop hundreds of roles in its streaming and studio operations, and 5% of employees at its audiobook and podcast division Audible are also to go, according to reports.
It's also reported that Discord is laying off 17% of its staff, or around 170 people across various departments.
Duolingo drops humans for AI
In a similar move, Duolingo, the prominent online language-learning platform, has reportedly initiated a restructuring phase, resulting in the reduction of approximately 10% of its contractors.
According to CNN, Duolingo executed these layoffs towards the end of 2023, positioning itself for significant changes in content generation and content sharing facilitated by AI.
The company clarified that no full-time employees were affected by these measures, emphasising that off-boarding was a last resort when alternative roles for impacted staff could not be identified.
"We just no longer need as many people to do the type of work some of these contractors were doing," a Duolingo spokesperson said.
"Part of that could be attributed to AI," the spokesperson added, emphasising the evolving nature of technology in shaping the company's workflow.
Duolingo boasts 24.2 million daily active users, 5.8 million paid subscribers, and offers over 100 available courses.
The company has been proactive in incorporating AI into its platform, introducing a new subscription tier called "Duolingo Max" in March last year.
CEO Luis von Ahn highlighted the role of generative AI in accelerating content creation in a November shareholder letter, stating: "Generative AI is accelerating our work by helping us create new content dramatically faster."
Duolingo intends to increase the use of AI for various tasks, including creating sentences for courses, compiling lists of acceptable translations, and reviewing user error reports to expedite corrections.
However, the company has emphasised that human oversight will still be crucial in checking AI-completed work for accuracy.