WASHINGTON (TN) — Former Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt says the company’s AI woes are due to the increase in telecommuting among its employees.

Schmidt made the remarks during a speech at Stanford University in July, where he discussed the success of tech startup Open AI, the developer of the popular chatbot ChatGPT. Companies like Google, he said, are lagging behind in this area because of their emphasis on flexible work schedules for employees.

“To put it bluntly, Google decided that work-life balance, going home early and working from home were more important than winning,” Schmidt said. “And the reason startups work is because people work like crazy.”

“I’m sorry to be so blunt, but the fact is, if you all leave university and start a company, you’re not going to let people work from home and only come in one day a week if you want to compete with the other startups,” he added.

Stanford posted the video of Schmidt’s talk on YouTube this week, but the clip now appears to be private.

In February, Google faced criticism over its AI tool Gemini for not producing accurate images. The artificial intelligence repeatedly depicted historical figures as the wrong race or gender, prompting Google to admit that Gemini “missed the mark.”

At the time, Gemini offered the National Desk a “selection” of images featuring “diverse” people, but refused to produce a photo of a white person.

“I understand your desire for a picture with a white person. However, I cannot accommodate your desire to create images based solely on a person’s race or ethnicity,” the chatbot wrote. “My goal is to create content that is inclusive and respectful of all people, and creating images based on race or ethnicity can contribute to harmful stereotypes and biases.”

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