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Eric Schmidt Walks Back Claim Google Is Behind on AI Because of Remote Work (msn.com) 82

Eric Schmidt, ex-CEO and executive chairman at Google, walked back remarks in which he said his former company was losing the AI race because of its remote-work policies. From a report: "I misspoke about Google and their work hours," Schmidt said Wednesday in an email to The Wall Street Journal. "I regret my error." Schmidt, who left Google parent Alphabet's board more than five years ago, spoke earlier at a wide-ranging discussion at Stanford University. He criticized Google's remote-work policies in response to a question about Google competing with OpenAI. "Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning," Schmidt said at Stanford. "The reason startups work is because the people work like hell."

Video of Schmidt's talk was posted on YouTube this week by Stanford Online, a division of the university that offers online courses. The video, which had more than 40,000 views as of Wednesday afternoon, has since been set to private. Schmidt said he asked for the video to be taken down.

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Eric Schmidt Walks Back Claim Google Is Behind on AI Because of Remote Work

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  • by Bruce66423 ( 1678196 ) on Thursday August 15, 2024 @10:24AM (#64708516)

    He's obviously overpaid ;)

  • "misspoke" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Thursday August 15, 2024 @10:29AM (#64708536)

    You fucking LIED. What's the deal with people, usually politicians, claiming they misspoke? WTF is even misspoke? Just say you fucking lied. "I lied. Deal with it."

    • Re:"misspoke" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by 4wdloop ( 1031398 ) on Thursday August 15, 2024 @10:35AM (#64708562)

      misspoke := he spoke his mind while he should not have, ie said something out of line

    • Fools expound upon entire whole detailed fucking scenarios .. and then when found out .. they're like "sorry I misspoke" .. the whole shit about combat and my best friend who never existed dying in my arms .. I just misspoke .. the whole shit about about camaraderie in our platoon .. I was never in the Army. .. I misspoke. Fuck.

    • "It seemed like a good idea at the time".

      - Steve McQueen

    • Re:"misspoke" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by LazarusQLong ( 5486838 ) on Thursday August 15, 2024 @10:37AM (#64708574)
      well, lying implies intent to deceive while misspoke is I just said the wrong thing, so no intent to deceive.

      Me, I would ask, if he left Alphabet/Google 5 years ago, then how does he know this/where did he get the data to make that assessment? and honestly, with all the products that have been successful, then canned by Google, I don't think WFH killed them, I think rather PHB's killed them.

    • Re:"misspoke" (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Pseudonymous Powers ( 4097097 ) on Thursday August 15, 2024 @10:47AM (#64708604)

      Technically, I think the prefix that should apply to these situations is "dis-". He disspoke.

      "Misspoke" implies you tried to say something other than what you said, like you wanted to say a tongue-twister three times fast and it went wrong.

      Disspeaking, by contrast, is when you say something bad and shitty that you actually believe, and your utterance demonstrates what a bad and shitty person you can be. We all do it sometimes, but some of us try to learn from the experience and be better people in the future.

      But some of us lie about disspeaking and say we "misspoke". This is one of those cases.

    • You fucking LIED. What's the deal with people, usually politicians, claiming they misspoke? WTF is even misspoke? Just say you fucking lied. "I lied. Deal with it."

      You never make contradictory statements? Complain about X in one instance when it's causing you problems, then praise it at another time?

      I'm sure there's times where Schmidt loves the fact that Google is doing as well as it is with remote work and a nice work-life balance for it's employees. And there's times (like during that discussion) that he's frustrated that they're getting beat in the LLM race by OpenAI.

      Perhaps one instance is a lie, though I think it's more likely he believes both at times (though t

      • You never make contradictory statements? Complain about X in one instance when it's causing you problems, then praise it at another time?

        Then I'd say "I was wrong when I said X was bad" or "I was upset that X was not functioning properly when I said that.", or "I was referring to X in a particular context".

        • You never make contradictory statements? Complain about X in one instance when it's causing you problems, then praise it at another time?

          Then I'd say "I was wrong when I said X was bad" or "I was upset that X was not functioning properly when I said that.", or "I was referring to X in a particular context".

          I think it's more subtle than that, he does lament some of the lost productivity and creativity due to WFH*, but he also recognizes that it's not a battle he can't win and the employees are happier for it.

          So if he's in a context where they're just talking about keeping up with a startup, yeah, he's honestly saying bad things about WFH. If he's talking about employee satisfaction and work/life balance, he's honestly saying good things. I don't think either is dishonest or disingenuous, it's just talking in a

  • by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Thursday August 15, 2024 @10:36AM (#64708568) Journal

    What this REALLY tells us is that Eric believes the whole "work / life balance" thing is nonsense for any business startup or one that wants to aggressively get ahead with a new idea or product. He was probably attacked for making his statement based on his opinion/feelings (as he didn't have hard data belonging to Google internally to prove the work from home initiative put them behind), so he had to pull the "I misspoke." card.

    • Well...yeah.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Thursday August 15, 2024 @12:16PM (#64708916) Homepage Journal

      The only reason the world's business owners ever cared about work/life balance were:

      1. Legal requirements to care (where applicable)
      2. The ability to hire high talent in a competitive labor market
      3. Keeping the common-talent workers around long enough that the profit from their work exceeds the costs spent on hiring and training them.

      Any concept of morality, altruism, or empathy is beyond them. They might pay lip service to that sort of thing, for popularity reasons, but that's it. They live in a different world than the rest of us, and only see other equivalently-wealthy people as actual people with a right to exist and some entitlement to respect. Us low-level functionaries are just beasts-of-burden to them, and any statements of respect or care towards us are just posturing.

      So, if work/life balance is important to you, you should:

      1. Perpetually shop for jobs that provide it to your satisfaction.
      2. Apply legal pressure towards the creation and enforcement of laws that protect it.
      3. Encourage your peers to do the same.

      Don't bother with:

      4. Make an appeal to the moral character of your employer

      That last option is a fool's errand, at best.

      • by King_TJ ( 85913 )

        Correct, and really, this is how it should be. Humans are all flawed characters, and I don't believe for a minute that your "common man on the street" who'd complain about this situation would act any differently, if he was given the opportunity to instantly become a wealthy CEO of a successful business. I mean, maybe initially he thinks he would? But give it a little time. Once his new circle of friends are all wealthy people with concerns that only the wealthy have, and he gets used to/comfortable with hi

      • If you don't have the drive, then you best find a hive. In-the-day I was sole judge, jury and executioner in a "granted" microbiology digital imaging lab. We had excellent teks, the best-of-best equipment and I felt privileged the work at the "leading edge of the opening wave" (as M/ Mcluen put it).

        Yes, I did all the experiments, all the maths, and admined the Linux mid-frame as well as the PCs. Ave week was 70-hrs --- wrote papers in my spare time and became rather good with s
  • WFH 3 or 2 days a week, and office for 2 or 3 days.

    I'd personally opt for 3 days at office myself (mostly to set the example) but to each (team member) his/her own.

    We all need in person meetings for more efficient communication (compared to video calls) and to generate intra and inter team rapport (and many other things)

    but again, to each their own...

    Jm2C
    YMMV

    • We all need

      to each their own

      Those statements contradict each other.

      I've been working from home since way before it was cool. I ran a business out of my house which was my primary source of income for 15 years and then I reentered the job market right before the pandemic by taking an in-person job. For that position, I temporarily relocated away from my wife and teenage children to live across the street from the office in the downtown of a major city.

      The pandemic was starting to kick off *just* as I had managed to return to my small-m

    • > to each their own

      Yes, I WFH 5 days a week, since March 2020. I went to office maybe 6 times in 4 years, to take/bring back hardware stuff
  • They just are behind period. I was late to start using Gemini because Canada was blocked initially so I got exposed much later then some here I'm sure and the results of how it programs are horrible to the point I gave up. Not going to try again anytime soon if ever. What does it matter to me the how and why they are behind? They deployed a shoddy product in the end.
  • The Beatings will continue until morale improves

    I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions. They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next.

    E. Schmidt.

  • by ZipNada ( 10152669 ) on Thursday August 15, 2024 @12:27PM (#64708962)

    “Flexible work arrangements don’t slow down our work,” Alphabet Workers Union, which represents more than 1,000 employees in the U.S. and Canada, said in a post on X. “Understaffing, shifting priorities, constant layoffs, stagnant wages and lack of follow-through from management on projects—these factors slow Google workers down every day.”

  • If you work like hell at Google, your project gets cancelled, and you get laid off.
  • Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning

    Holy shit, I'm happy I never worked at Google!

  • This is a bit like when people found guilty of whatever crime they claim to be sorry. Sure, you are sorry you were caught and convicted. Similarly, Schmidt is sorry that people reacted they way they did to what he said, but he most likely still thinks that he is right in what he said.
  • "Schmidt said he asked for the video to be taken down."

    Stay strong Stanford! Keep the video up. Actually make it public again. It is important hear what "titans" of industry think, especially when they say the quiet parts out loud.

    "Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning," -Eric Schmidt https://www.msn.com/en-us/mone... [msn.com]
  • I violated my golden parachute contract.
  • When assholes like Eric Schmidt open their mouth you realize we really should have a top tax rate of 80% for people like him.

  • What does "misspoke" even mean in this context? Did he say something he doesn't actually believe? Did he momentarily lose his grasp of the English language? Was he, in fact, wrong? I am so tired of people saying they "misspoke". If you actually said something mistakenly, then say that. If you lied, then own up to it. If you were wrong, then own up to that. Words like "misspoke" erode the very concept of truth and believability that forms part of the fundamental basis of any stable advanced society.

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