Eric Schmidtformer CEO of Alphabet Inc. GOOG GOOGLE Googleretracted his comments blaming the search giant’s focus on work-life balance and remote work for its failure to compete with AI startups like OpenAI supported by Microsoft Corp.And Anthropic.

What happened: In a talk at Stanford University in April, Schmidt said that Google’s focus on work-life balance and remote work puts the company at an advantage compared to startups like OpenAIA recording of Schmidt’s speech was posted on Stanford Online’s YouTube channel on Tuesday.

In the lecture, Schmidt noted, “Google has decided that work-life balance, finishing early and working from home are more important than winning.” He also noted that startups are successful because “people work like crazy.”

However, Schmidt has since retracted his comments. In an email to the Wall Street Journal, he wrote: “I made a mistake about Google and their working hours.”

“I regret my mistake.”

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Schmidt’s comments reflect the views of other technology leaders. Sam AltmanCEO of OpenAI, told Fortune Magazine in 2023 that allowing employees to work entirely remotely was one of the tech industry’s “worst mistakes.”

Despite these views, research on the impact of teleworking on productivity remains inconclusive, with some studies showing an increase in productivity, while others show a decrease.

An analysis by Goldman Sachs suggested that the discrepancy could be due to different methods of measuring productivity.

See also: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg owns two of the largest social media platforms in the world. He now considers this experience on phones to be “antisocial.”

Why it is important: To increase the complexity even further, Tesla Inc. Managing Director Elon Musk has also commented on the future of AI, pointing out that advances could lead to a world in which human labor is no longer necessary.

In addition, Google was also under pressure internally. A leaked email revealed that CEO Sundar Pichai was particularly concerned about the loss of talent to competitors such as Apple Inc.

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Disclaimer: This content was created in part using AI tools and reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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