In late 2023, CEO Sundar Pichai announced that Google was entering the “Gemini era” – an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that the search giant hopes can help it regain its footing in the race. But the new era is taking on the color of a crisis that is largely rooted in internal factors.
Internal mechanism
The scandal surrounding the AI image generator Gemini was so serious that Pichai admitted it was “completely unacceptable,” especially when it involved Google’s highest-priority product.
The simplest explanation for this mess is that Google went a little overboard with its rapid image generation technique, an industry-standard technique that involves inserting additional words into a prompt without the user’s knowledge before sending it to an AI model to generate a result. It’s relatively easy to undo, and Google has said that AI Gemini will be back in a few weeks.
But Gemini’s text-based responses were more problematic. For example, the chatbot suggested that Elon Musk was worse than Adolf Hitler, as well as other obvious political biases. Google co-founder Sergey Brin admitted that the company “doesn’t fully understand” why the model “leans left.”
Even people in the Trust & Safety team are at a loss to know exactly why and how such responses come about. “It’s not clear organizationally who’s there or who owns what,” a source told CNBC ’s Alex Kantrowitz. “It’s probably set up so that no one gets in trouble when something goes wrong,” the person said.
According to TheVerge , Gemini’s poor feedback still made it through testing because the search giant felt the need to get the product out quickly. Another example is that the image creation process in the Gemini app isn’t actually supported by Gemini. It’s actually an older text-to-image model that was added to “meet the deadline.”
Layoffs and pay cuts
The Verge ’s sources said that the Play Store (app store) team and marketing department at the Googleplex have conducted layoffs, followed by the Trust & Safety unit and YouTube. Representatives of the tech giant declined to provide specific information, but said that they are focusing on reducing “bureaucracy and hierarchy” and giving “employees more opportunities to work with the company’s most innovative and progressive.”
Meanwhile, emails and internal documents show that while most Google employees will still get raises, the majority will not receive increases comparable to previous years.
One key area that Google executives are discussing is the company's pay "local benchmarks," which are essentially pay for similar work at other companies in the same geographic area.
Leaders at the company are encouraged to focus on “the big picture, which is the macro economy, the state of technology” and how Google fits into the overall picture.
“As we continue to align salaries with local markets, some bonuses may be lower than last year for some Googlers. Managers will have additional discretionary funds to help reward those who perform well and want to recognize and encourage them, but additional discretionary funds may be more modest than in previous years, especially bonuses,” an email from a Google HR manager read.
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