A hot potato: While artificial intelligence companies are making rapid progress in developing generative AI technology, Google is lagging behind companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. According to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the reason is simple: His former company values ​​working from home and flexible working hours for its employees.

Schmidt served as CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011 and as executive chairman until 2015. He recently participated in a discussion led by Professor Erik Brynjolfsson and students at Stanford University, where he made his views on remote work clear.

Brynjolfsson pointed out that Google was a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence. In 2017, researchers invented the Transformer deep learning architecture – the technology behind many of today’s LLMs and is the T in ChatGPT. Since then, however, the company has fallen behind OpenAI and startups like Anthropic in the development of artificial intelligence.

Brynjolfsson said he asked Sundar Pichai about the situation, but the current Google CEO never gave him a “sharp” answer. So could Schmidt offer an explanation?

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

Like many current and former executives, Schmidt seems to abhor the idea of ​​employees working from home. He praised the fact that more workers will be forced back into the office in 2022, claiming it improves professionalism and allows younger workers to develop their own leadership style.

Schmidt wasn’t finished with his tirade. “I’m sorry to be so direct, 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 against the other startups.”

It’s worth noting that Schmidt is exaggerating here for effect: Like many companies, Google requires its employees to be in the office at least three days a week.

Schmidt then highlighted Elon Musk as an example of a purposeful leader who brings out the best in people. In June 2022, Musk ordered that SpaceX and Tesla employees must spend at least 40 hours a week in the office or face layoffs.

The former CEO also spoke about the work ethic in Taiwan, especially at TSMC, where there is a rule that prospective PhD students have to work in the basement of the factory. “Can you imagine getting American physicists to do that?” asked Schmidt.

TSMC’s extreme work culture is said to be causing problems when it comes to hiring new employees for its Arizona foundries. Twelve-hour workdays that extend into the weekend, calling employees in in the middle of the night in case of emergencies, a harsh management style and the threat of firing for minor infractions are not going down well in the US, leaving the chipmaker struggling to fill vacancies with US workers.