{"id":210207,"date":"2023-01-20T14:05:44","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T13:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=210207"},"modified":"2025-07-01T20:08:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:08:17","slug":"google-plans-to-lay-off-12000-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/google-plans-to-lay-off-12000-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking News! Google will lay off 12,000 employees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">News just in! It\u2019s hardly been a day since I published an <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/high-tech-company-layoffs-since-covid-19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article about big tech companies firing<\/a> a massive number of staff. Now, the CEO of Alphabet and Google has announced that it needs to <strong>let 12,000 employees go<\/strong> so that the company can survive and thrive in 2023. What\u2019s disconcerting is the mention of AI, which just calls to our fears again of tech replacing humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.google\/inside-google\/message-ceo\/january-update\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sundar Pichai\u2019s communication<\/a>, he stresses how <strong>difficult the decision was<\/strong> for him and other executives at Google and Alphabet. Employees in the United States have already received the devastating email, presenting how they will be compensated for this sudden decision. I\u2019m not sure how comforting it will be, but at least they will be paid for a couple of weeks to give them time to find new work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As for employees not in the US, Pichai states that Google needs to first <strong>establish local laws<\/strong> before they can take the next step. I\u2019m sure the company wants to avoid as many lawsuits as possible, hence this decision.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Microsoft firing 10,000 employees and Alphabet (Google) firing 12,000&#8230; 2023 is off to a great start, I see. ????<\/p>&mdash; DIABOLUS EX MACHINA ? (@yann_solle) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yann_solle\/status\/1616399505242349568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 20, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, where does artificial intelligence come in? And why is Google suddenly firing so many people? I draw your attention to this line:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our <strong>early investments in AI<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"740\" height=\"416\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2023\/01\/google-plans-to-lay-off-12000-employees.jpg\" alt=\"google plans to lay off 12000 employees\" class=\"wp-image-210210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2023\/01\/google-plans-to-lay-off-12000-employees.jpg 740w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2023\/01\/google-plans-to-lay-off-12000-employees-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2023\/01\/google-plans-to-lay-off-12000-employees-664x374.jpg 664w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2023\/01\/google-plans-to-lay-off-12000-employees-238x134.jpg 238w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2023\/01\/google-plans-to-lay-off-12000-employees-436x246.jpg 436w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2023\/01\/google-plans-to-lay-off-12000-employees-370x208.jpg 370w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2023\/01\/google-plans-to-lay-off-12000-employees-304x170.jpg 304w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2023\/01\/google-plans-to-lay-off-12000-employees-18x10.jpg 18w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2023\/01\/google-plans-to-lay-off-12000-employees-150x84.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My main concern here is that early investment in AI. How this comes across is that Google is now maybe using AI to help manage most of the <strong>content or automated work<\/strong> that can be done by the like of GTP-3 or even the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/people-will-be-disappointed-by-gpt-4\">upcoming GPT-4<\/a>. With that in mind, I\u2019m wondering how many of the tech companies firing employees in 2023 already are truly doing so due to a poor economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Meta, Amazon, Google: Why Layoffs At Big Tech? | Fired Employees Speak Up | Let&#039;s Talk Jobs\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UmwqDrJBVVQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, this is all conjecture on my part. Pichai mentioned that Google and Alphabet evaluated which are the <strong>top priority roles <\/strong>they need to keep. For the rest, they now need to make new plans for the future. Let\u2019s hope they can find something in time, especially with so many companies in the industry also letting people go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/y0ZQdUGKUlXZvsMmSAgGFs9VoK1TjsLAaStWXpKKBa9BIFnH-J-vGleWIDG-RVEVbW5jC9EuwTGhjwjqOUeFpKsGEk4lizETb2kHVVEMDJ1OxuzgkwWRWd6EazBZkTwykJRJze8054EEB3AXZXL1DRw_4L_m05YvUvS7QHKDyuV4FrkYFkPBuBlGkkRf7w\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google has made a decision to fire 12,000 staff. Read the report that holds are the details<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9205,"featured_media":210226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[1068],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-210207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-google"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322510,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210207\/revisions\/322510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210207"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=210207"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=210207"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=210207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}