Sergey Brin wearing Google Glass at TED2013. Long Beach, CA. February 25 - March 1, 2013. Photo: James Duncan DavidsonA recent Google memo released by the tech company’s co-founder Sergey Brin asked the DeepMind AI division employees to spend at least 60 hours every week in the office. Brin added that the employees should also try to be present in the office all weekdays. The Google co-founder believes that the new measures will increase productivity in the GDM division and help the company lead the artificial general intelligence development race.
Google is facing increased competition from other tech companies in the U.S. and globally, including Meta, DeepSeek, OpenAI, and xAI. Brin acknowledged the surging competition, adding that the final AGI race is “afoot.” The Google co-founder added that the company has “all the ingredients” to help it win the race but insisted that the employees would have to turbocharge their efforts.
Brin further stated in the memo that some employees worked less than 60 hours a week while others only pushed to achieve the bare minimum. The company’s co-founder mentioned that the employees in the two categories were unproductive for Google’s AI goals and affected the morale of other employees. Brin still cautioned the GDM division employees to maintain 60 hours and not more, saying that more working hours would lead to burnout.
The memo was notably directed to the GDM team only and did not reflect on the overall Google return-to-work policy. Google is still not the only company that has demanded its workers return to work full-time to improve productivity. The e-commerce giant Amazon ordered its employees to return to work five days a week last year. Other companies like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have also ended their hybrid work models.
Brin encourages employees to use Google AI for coding
Google Chief Scientist, Jeff Dean
"AI now generates 25% of Google's integrated code"
Google has already trained a Gemini model on its internal codebase to help developers
— Chubby♨️ (@kimmonismus) February 13, 2025
Brin said in the memo that the GDM developers should begin leveraging the Google AI tools for coding. The tech company executive added that using AI during the process would enable AI to improve itself, pushing Google nearer to achieving AGI. AGI is the expected level where artificial intelligence achieves the same level of human intelligence or higher.
The co-founder also praised the employees working on Gemini and other AI-related tools. In his opinion, the employees’ use of the company’s AI made them the most efficient programmers and AI scientists globally.
The tech giant revealed its use of AI in coding last year during the third quarter earnings call, showing the increased use of AI in software development. CEO Sundar Pichai said in the earnings call that the company was improving its code using AI, adding that the changes improved efficiency and productivity.
Pichai also added that the company’s developers let AI produce about 25% of Google’s code as of the end of October last year. Google’s chief scientist, Jeff Dean, confirmed this month that 25% of the company’s code was still produced by AI. Dean explained that the company had trained one of its Gemini models on its internal database to aid developers during coding.
GitHub Copilot was the first to introduce AI-aided coding in 2021 using OpenAI’s Codex, leading to the feature’s wide release in 2022. Companies like Meta, Anthropic, Replit, and Google have also introduced improved AI-based coding solutions in the past few years. The developments have still led to speculations that AI coding will be a threat to developers’ jobs. Recent Stanford University research also revealed that AI-created codes contained more bugs than human code.
Google co-founder adds more suggestions to improve productivity
Sergey Brin pointed out in the memo that various filters and punts overrun Google AI products. Brin called for the cessation of punting, saying that the tech company and its developers should trust its users. The executive also added that Google could not continue developing “nanny products,” insisting on the need for capable products.
Brin further brought up the need for better organization with clear responsibilities to create high-functioning groups sharing technology and management leadership. The Google co-founder also suggested more excellence by ensuring released products are working and “are good.” Brin insisted on more speed in Google product performance, rolling out more ideas that can be tested quickly, and simplicity during product development.
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