Google Co-Founder Urges Developers to Stop "Babysitting" Users and Work Harder

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has urged company employees to ramp up efforts in the race to develop AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and stop "babysitting" users.

In an internal memo obtained by The New York Times, Brin emphasized that Google has the potential to lead the AI industry, but only if developers significantly increase productivity.

Brin advised Google DeepMind employees to work from the office daily, arguing that in-person collaboration is far more effective than remote work. He also suggested that a 60-hour workweek strikes the right balance between productivity and burnout.

60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity. A number of folks work less than 60 hours and a small number put in the bare minimum to get by. This last group is not only unproductive but also can be highly demoralizing to everyone else, Brin wrote.

He stressed that developers working on Gemini should be the best AI specialists, utilizing Google’s own technologyand prioritizing speed. "I can’t wait 20 minutes to run a small Python script on Borg," he remarked, calling for simplified solutions and a unified model architecture, avoiding unnecessary technical complexity like LoRA.

Brin also criticized Google's approach to product restrictions, urging the company to remove excessive filters and limitations and trust users more. He emphasized that Google need capable products that we trust our users with, not "nanny products" that don't meet user requirements.

According to Brin, the industry is entering the final stage of the AGI race, and Google must move faster, experimenting on a small scale to test and implement new ideas quickly.