Former CEO Eric Schmidt retracts and apologizes for saying Google lost the AI race because it prioritized remote work and work-life balance

Eric Schmidt, co-founder and former CEO of Google, blamed the company's remote work policies for lagging behind in the AI race, but later retracted his remarks, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Exclusive | Eric Schmidt Walks Back Claim Google Is Behind on AI Because of Remote Work - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/google-eric-schmidt-ai-remote-work-stanford-f92f4ca5

Video of Eric Schmidt blaming remote work for Google's woes mysteriously vanishes | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/14/video-of-eric-schmidt-blaming-remote-work-for-googles-woes-mysteriously-vanishes/

During a discussion at Stanford University, Schmidt criticized Google's remote work policy in response to a question about the competition between Google and OpenAI.

Schmidt emphasized to the audience that 'working in an office is essential to succeeding in the competitive startup environment.' He said, 'If you graduate and start a company, you're not going to have your employees come in to the office one day a week and work remotely if you're competing with other startups.'

'Google has decided that work-life balance, going home early, and remote work are more important than winning,' Schmidt said, arguing that Google's remote work policies are the reason it's lagging behind in the race against AI companies.

In a Stanford talk posted today, Eric Schmidt says the reason why Google is losing to @OpenAI and other startups is because Google only has people coming in 1 day per week ???? pic.twitter.com/XPxr3kdNaC

— Alex Kehr (@alexkehr) August 13, 2024

Indeed, in response to the global pandemic of the new coronavirus infection, many companies have encouraged remote work, where employees work from home. However, Google does not allow full remote work and will require employees to work in the office three days a week in June 2023.

Google to ban remote work in principle and include working three days a week in work evaluations - GIGAZINE

In addition, Google's competitor OpenAI has also adopted similar measures, which contradicts Schmidt's claim that 'remote work has made Google less competitive.'

The video of Schmidt's lecture was posted on YouTube and had been viewed over 40,000 times, but it was made private at the time of writing. In the video, Schmidt emphasized that the content of the lecture was off the record, and seemed a little surprised when the moderator told him that he was being filmed.

'I made a mistake about Google and its working hours, and I regret that mistake,' Schmidt said in an email to TechCrunch.