Google's Remote Work Policy is Blunting its AI Competitiveness, Says Former CEO

Eric Schmidt, the former CEO and chairman of Google, has said that the company's remote work policy is blunting its competitiveness in the AI race.

Schmidt made the comments in an interview with The Times, in which he said that Google is losing out to OpenAI and Anthropic because staff are working from home.

“The problem with Google is that they’re too comfortable,” Schmidt said. “They’re not moving fast enough on AI.”

Schmidt’s comments come as Google faces increasing competition from OpenAI, the company behind the popular ChatGPT chatbot. OpenAI has been releasing a series of new AI products in recent months, including a new chatbot called GPT-4, which is said to be even more powerful than ChatGPT.

Anthropic, another AI startup, has also been making waves in the AI community. Anthropic has developed a new AI model called Claude, which is said to be able to perform a wide range of tasks, including writing text, generating code, and translating languages.

Google has not been resting on its laurels, but it has been slower to release new AI products than OpenAI and Anthropic. This has led to concerns that Google is falling behind in the AI race.

Schmidt’s comments are a wake-up call for Google. The company needs to move faster on AI if it wants to maintain its position as a leader in the field.