Former Google CEO has said that work from home is a key factor behind Google lagging behind in the AI race.
A recent YouTube video is doing rounds on the internet in which Schmidt was giving a lecture at Stanford University.
He shared his strong reservations when it came to remote working during the lecture.
After Covid, a new working trend emerged- remote working or work from home. But turns out not a lot of people higher up in even the biggest organisations in the world don’t like this working arrangement. Now, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said that this is a key factor behind Google lagging behind in the AI race.
Schmidt led Google as its CEO from 2001 to 2011 and was later the executive chairperson till 2015. A recent YouTube video is doing rounds on the internet. Here, Schmidt was giving a lecture at Stanford University. He discussed the competitive edge that startups like OpenAI and Anthropic have over Google in the AI sector.
He shared his strong reservations when it came to remote working during the lecture. When asked about the advantages that these AI startups have over Google, Schmidt remarked, “Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning.” He said that startups did not have a culture like this, he said, “The people work like hell.”
He openly criticised the company’s current work-from-home policy. He said that working from the office only one day a week is not conducive to staying competitive in the tech industry. He even went ahead and said that if the students were to start their own companies, allowing such limited in-office work would hinder their ability to compete with other more driven startups.
During the same lecture, Schmidt also praised leaders like Elon Musk for their relentless drive and innovation and highlighted Taiwan Semiconductor’s approach to grounding new PhD talent with hands-on experience from the ground up.
Do you also think working from home kills productivity and companies should now kill this concept?
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