Google’s decision to let go of 12,000 employees, just announced on Friday, adds to the recent trend of “big tech” companies cutting jobs in unprecedented numbers. .
information Google reports that layoffs have spread to nearly every group, including projects like Chrome, Search, Android, and Google Cloud. The sources said people who previously received “high performance reviews” were affected, as well as some managers who earn $500,000 to $1 million for him.
But one area of the search and advertising giant that was “relatively unaffected” was the Google Brain division, run by Jeff Dean, senior vice president of research and artificial intelligence. This is the team that develops machine learning techniques that Google already uses in many areas.by new york times, that work will also apply to a number of products reportedly seen at the I/O event in May. This includes tools that generate images, YouTube’s green screen feature, and, at some point this year, its chatbot version of the search engine.
Confirmed by Google bloomberg The decision to “reduce the majority of Area 120 teams.” The incubator, named after Google’s famous but long-dormant policy of allowing an employee to spend 20% of his time on side projects, was already There was a big cut that affected half of the projects. According to the company, three projects have been incorporated into Google and the rest are gone.
At Microsoft, where 10,000 people have been laid off, polygon points to reports of the impact on several game development studios, as well as reactions from some former employees.according to bloombergthere was a cut in star field Developer Bethesda, Reporter Jason Schreier said in a tweet That Hello studio 343 Industries was reportedly “hit hard.” at the same time, Kotaku The Coalition gears of war Gaming was also affected.
Other cuts hit Microsoft’s mixed reality team.report from bloomberg This is a potential side effect of Congress’ rejection of the US Army’s request to purchase up to 6,900 headsets based on the HoloLens platform. Microsoft also shut down its AltspaceVR virtual reality-based social platform, which it acquired in 2017, and employees of Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Toolkit team. they said all laid off.
Amazon confirmed months ago that layoffs included jobs in its devices and services division. Then, in early January, hardware division chief Dave Limp said on his TechCheck on CNBC that Alexa and his Echo Smart, home of his devices, have cut about 2,000 jobs in his division. said to have been affected by Projects confirmed to have been dropped included video calling devices and telemedicine services for children.
CNBC reported this week that the layoffs also include a “significant number” of employees working on Prime Air drone delivery projects at multiple sites, including its headquarters. Proving Grounds in Pendleton, Oregon. First announced by Jeff Bezos in 2013, the program has begun testing in several cities as it prepares to launch the next-generation MK30 drone, which will follow the previous MK27-2 unit shown above. We are looking at these reductions in
Amazon declined to tell CNBC how many people within the division have been laid off.
Update, 12:30 PM ET: Updated to announce the closure of AltspaceVR and other layoffs in Microsoft’s mixed reality division.
