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Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco that Google plans to continue expanding its engineering workforce with people, despite rapid advances in AI tech.
The tech sector has been hit by huge numbers of layoffs over the last five years, as companies that over-hired during the pandemic adjusted by trimming staff. The advent of AI has exacerbated worries about further cuts and stoked fears about the technology replacing certain job functions. Google itself has conducted rounds of layoffs in recent years to free up resources.
The company says, however, that it believes in the value of hiring human talent, even as it intensifies investments in artificial intelligence (AI).
Pichai emphasized the importance of human engineers in leveraging AI technologies to enhance productivity.
He said: "I expect we will grow from our current engineering base even into next year, because it allows us to do more with the opportunity space."
The CEO added that AI can make engineers "dramatically more productive" by automating mundane tasks, and enabling them to focus on the more complex and creative aspects of their work.
Balancing AI advancements with human expertise
Despite acknowledging AI's capabilities, Pichai cautioned against overestimating its current potential, noting that while AI excels in areas like coding, it still makes basic mistakes.
He was somewhat more vague about the pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI), which can supposedly perform on a level with humans, adding: "So are we currently on an absolute path to AGI? I don’t think anyone can say for sure."
As Google integrates more AI into its search engine, concerns have also arisen among publishers about potential declines in web traffic due to AI-generated answers.
Pichai addressed those concerns by affirming Google's commitment to directing traffic to the web, saying: "Compared to most companies in the world, we take care to design an experience which is going to showcase links. We took a long time testing AI Overviews and prioritized approaches which resulted in high quality traffic out. I’m confident that many years from now that’s how Google will work."
