"The final race to AGI is afoot": Google co-founder says engineers should work 60-hour weeks building AI models that may ironically steal their jobs

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a paradigm shift in the workplace, with most organizations embracing work-from-home and hybrid work. However, as the world is seemingly over the hump, reports indicate that the end of remote work could be on the horizon.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin seems to share the same sentiments. Ironically, the executive has been pushing for tech giant employees to return to the office five days a week to bolster the company's AI efforts and build better models that could potentially take over their jobs.

This news comes after top AI labs, including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Microsoft, have demonstrated significant success in the AI landscape. For instance, OpenAI recently unveiled Stargate, a $500 billion project designed to facilitate the construction of data centers across the United States for its AI advances.

The same is also true for Microsoft. CEO Satya Nadella indicated that the company allocates up to $80 billion annually to bolster its AI advances.

Brin's comments come at a crucial time when Google is seemingly tailing in the category, predominantly because of its reluctance to hop onto the AI train. This, in turn, prompts its missed opportunity to invest in the category and integrate the technology across its tech stack early enough.

Last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella claimed Google missed its opportunity with AI. Nadella's comments seemingly struck Google CEO Sundar Pichai's nerve, prompting him to throw a jab at the software giant:

"I would love to do a side-by-side comparison of Microsoft's own models and our models any day, any time. They're using someone else's models."

According to an internal memo exclusively obtained by The New York Times, Google co-founder Sergey Brin indicated:

"Competition has accelerated immensely and the final race to A.G.I. is afoot. I think we have all the ingredients to win this race, but we are going to have to turbocharge our efforts."

The memo was addressed to engineers working on Google's flagship AI chatbot, Gemini. Perhaps more interestingly, Brin claimed that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity.”

Does Google have "all the ingredients" to dominate the AI landscape?

Over the past few months, we've seen AI efforts propel companies like Microsoft and Apple to the top spot, each briefly becoming the world's most valuable company with over $3 trillion in market capitalization.

To that end, Google has seemingly struggled to establish its dominance in the space, potentially because of its "late debut" in the AI space, coupled with a cascade of failures, including its erroneous AI Overviews feature, which recommended eating rocks and glue or even committing suicide.

As Google attempts to catch the AI train, Brin indicated that engineers should incorporate Google's AI models into their workflows. He claimed the approach would make them “the most efficient coders and A.I. scientists in the world.”

Interestingly, top executives from top tech firms like Meta and Salesforce have shared insights and predictions, highlighting AI's affinity to automate tasks like coding and claiming jobs from software engineers.

For instance, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff outrightly indicated that the company was seriously debating hiring software engineers in 2025. Mark Zuckerberg seemingly shared the same sentiments, indicating that mid-level AI engineers might claim coding jobs from professionals at Meta in 2025.

Elsewhere, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis recently indicated that DeepSeek's success is "exaggerated." He claimed Google continues to hold a significant lead in AI and has the "ingredients" to maintain it.