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☆ 10 Things in Tech: Joe Biden has tried ChatGPT, Silicon Valley goes sober, and leaked Shopify audio
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

And Silicon Valley is catching on, too. My colleague Samantha Stokes did a deep dive into the growing trend of techies avoiding alcohol. Silicon Valley goes sober. My colleague Samantha Stokes examined this growing trend in Silicon Valley and gives some insight into the drying industry. In other news:Screenshot of Hot Chat 30002.

☆ Angry Google employees are mocking CEO Sundar Pichai's pay hike with memes, including one of a 'Shrek' villain, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Some Google employees aren't happy about Sundar Pichai's $226 million paycheck. Some Google employees aren't happy about CEO Sundar Pichai's pay packet amid the company's cost-cutting. Per CNBC, the accompanying text read: "Sundar accepting $226 million while laying off 12k Googlers, cutting perks, and destroying morale and culture." However, Pichai's pay packet was boosted last year due to stock awards worth $218 million. According to court filings, the executive was paid a total of $226 million in 2022, making him one of the highest-paid CEOs in the US.

☆ Google employees complain about CEO Sundar Pichai's pay raise as cost cuts hit rest of the company
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at a panel at the CEO Summit of the Americas hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on June 09, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)Google CEO Sundar Pichai received a hefty pay raise last year, making him one of the highest-paid CEOs in America. SEC filings showed Pichai was paid a total of $226 million last year, mostly through $218 million in stock awards. Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson said he'd also be taking a pay cut amid a 17% workforce reduction. At an all-hands meeting, employees asked Pichai why executives are getting pay cuts if he's taking responsibility.

☆ Alphabet CEO Pichai reaps over $200 mln in 2022 amid cost-cutting
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 21 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) Chief Executive Sundar Pichai received total compensation of about $226 million in 2022, more than 800 times the median employee's pay, the company said in a securities filing on Friday. Pichai's compensation included stock awards of about $218 million, the filing showed. Early this month, hundreds of Google employees staged a walkout at the company's London offices following a dispute over layoffs. In March, Google employees staged a walkout at the company's Zurich offices after more than 200 workers were laid off. Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai received $226 million in total compensation in 2022, most of which came through stock awards, according to a securities report filed by the company on Friday. His annual salary was $2 million from 2020 to 2022, the filing stated. The CEO's compensation package also included almost $6 million for personal security in 2022. Other Alphabet and Google principal executives made approximately $22 million to $35 million in annual stock awards, according to the filing. The report comes as Alphabet is initiating cost restructuring measures, including layoffs in January that eliminated 12,000 workers, or 6% of its workforce.

☆ Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai earned $226 million last year, making him one of the world's best-paid bosses
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google owner Alphabet, was paid a total of $226 million in 2022. Alphabet also spent almost $6 million on personal security for Pichai, according to a filing. Alphabet's Sundar Pichai was paid a total of $226 million last year after he was awarded a big tranche of shares, making him one of America's best-paid CEOs. The chief executive of Google's owner was given worth more than $218 million, according to filings published Friday. Alphabet also spent almost $6 million on personal security for Pichai, according to the filing.

☆ Sundar Pichai said AI will impact 'everything' including 'every product across every company'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said AI will impact products at "every company" in a CBS interview. Pichai discussed Google's own AI chatbot Bard and the wide-ranging effects of AI. "This is going to impact every product across every company," he said, later describing generative AI as a "super-powered assistant." Google previously found that AI chatbot ChatGPT could hypothetically pass interviews to be hired as an entry-level software engineer at the firm. The tech giant rolled out its chatbot Bard to the public in March.

☆ Google CEO says he used the company's Bard AI chatbot to plan his father's 80th birthday party
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said he used Google Bard to help plan his father's 80th birthday. Pichai said Bard told him he should make a scrapbook for the event. "It's not that it's profound, but it says things and kind of sparks the imagination," Pichai told the Times. Pichai's experience echoes similar stories from early users of Google's competitor, Microsoft's Bing AI chatbot. Pichai told the Times he understands the concerns people have, but remains optimistic about AI technology.

☆ Want in on the AI boom? These 8 high-quality stocks are already ahead of the pack
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Paulina Likos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

AI-powered technology companies Microsoft Microsoft arguably pushed AI into the mainstream with its unexpected release of its new AI-powered search engine Bing. During its annual conference for developers earlier this month, Nvidia demonstrated the fundamental importance of its role in facilitating the usage AI applications. Also unveiled were four new chips designed specifically for inferencing , which are optimized for various new generative AI applications. To facilitate these operations, AMD provides machine learning and deep learning systems which offer higher-performance computing capabilities to accelerate AI applications. Qualcomm Qualcomm (QCOM) is focused on making AI technology on-device processing more efficient across different industries and products.

☆ Google CEO tells employees that 80,000 of them helped test Bard A.I., warns 'things will go wrong'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told employees that the success of its newly launched Bard A.I. “As more people start to use Bard and test its capabilities, they'll surprise us. Things will go wrong," Pichai wrote in an internal email to employees Tuesday viewed by CNBC. The message to employees comes as Google launched Bard as "an experiment" Tuesday morning, after months of anticipation. Pichai's Tuesday email also said 80,000 Google employees contributed to testing Bard, responding to Pichai's all-hands-on-deck call to action last month, which included a plea for workers to re-write the chatbot's bad answers.

☆ Laid-off Google employees may not get paid out for approved maternity or medical leave as severance terms deadline looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Former Googlers are pleading with execs to compensate them for approved paid time off following mass layoffs, CNBC reported. The "Laid off on Leave" group said they've sent three letters to CEO Sundar Pichai and company leaders. In a statement to CNBC, a Google spokesperson emphasized the existing severance package mentioned in Pichai's January memo to staff. Others reported having their access to Google's on-site One Medical facility cut off the same day they were laid off. The Laid off on Leave group reiterated this notion in their letters to the C-suite execs, and referenced Google's original core value, "Don't be evil."

☆ Google nixes paying out remainder of maternity and medical leave for laid-off employees
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

The group includes people who were approved for or are currently on maternity leave, baby bonding leave, caregiver's leave, medical leave and personal leave. Early last year, Google announced it would be increasing parental leave for full-time employees to 18 weeks for all parents and 24 weeks for birth parents. Pichai said U.S.-based employees would receive 16 weeks of severance pay plus two weeks for each additional year they worked at Google. The Laid off on Leave group sent its first email to executives in January, and shared specific examples of Google employees impacted by the job cuts while on their previously approved leave. The company didn't address whether it would cover full medical leave on top of the severance payout.

☆ Google's CEO touts desk-sharing, says the office can feel like a 'ghost town' with many employees in the office just 2 days a week: CNBC
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Google CEO Sundar Pichai justified a new desk-sharing program at the company's cloud unit, per CNBC. Pichai said many staffers work in the office two days just a week, so it can feel like a "ghost town." While the policy is just for cloud employees now, Pichai said last week other teams have the "freedom to experiment," per CNBC. The desk-sharing program had previously drawn criticism from some employees who taunted the "corpspeak" used while announcing the initiative, per the broadcaster. A Google spokesperson confirmed the company's desk-sharing program, in an emailed response to Insider, but did not comment on Pichai's comments.

☆ Google CEO defends desk-sharing policy, says some offices are like a 'ghost town'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended the cloud unit's new desk-sharing policy for employees, describing some of the company's offices as practically empty and reminding staffers that real estate is pricey. Pichai's comments follow a CNBC report last month about Google's plan to ask cloud employees and partners to share desks at the division's five largest locations, which include New York and San Francisco. The company is calling the downsizing effort Cloud Office Evolution (CLOE). Pichai said the new policy is just for cloud employees at the moment, and added that the company is "giving teams freedom to experiment." During the meeting, Pichai addressed employee concerns regarding the rollout of the desk-sharing policy and how it was communicated to the workforce.

☆ Leaked messages show Googlers are taking out their frustrations over layoffs on its new Bard AI chatbot
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently asked employees to help test and improve its Bard chatbot. Internal message boards show Googlers asking Bard to explain the company's recent moves. In one such conversation reviewed by Insider, an employee asked Bard to imagine an IT company that has laid off 12,000 employees. In another conversation shared by an employee, Bard was asked, "Should Google fire people via email with no thank you or goodbye?" That requires training the bot to steer it away from such subjects, which is why Google asked employees to lend a hand.

☆ Amazon's pledge to become 'Earth's Best Employer' is failing.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I get a lot of satisfaction out of what I do, but I'd love to work for the world's best employer. What would the best employer in the world look like? While we ponder these imponderables, I can tell you that it's probably not Amazon — despite its flashy 2021 pledge to become "Earth's Best Employer." Amazon is fumbling its "Earth's Best Employer" pledge. CEO Andy Jassy even once admitted that the definition of Earth's Best Employer is "subjective."

☆ Google CEO tells employees some of company's top products 'were not first to market' as A.I. pressure mounts
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at a panel at the CEO Summit of the Americas hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on June 09, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. “I know this moment is uncomfortably exciting, and that's to be expected: the underlying technology is evolving rapidly with so much potential,” Pichai wrote in a companywide email, which was viewed by CNBC. "Some of our most successful products were not first to market,” Pichai wrote. He said it's time to “embrace the challenge and keep iterating.”“Channel the energy and excitement of the moment into our products," Pichai wrote. “Pressure test Bard and make the product better.”WATCH: CNBC's full interview with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai

☆ Google CEO Sundar Pichai asks employees to put two to four hours into helping to improve and 'dogfood' its Bard chatbot
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Google this week began companywide internal testing of Bard, its AI chatbot for search. In a memo, CEO Sundar Pichai has asked all employees to spend 2-4 hours helping test the product. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai sent an internal memo to Googlers on Wednesday asking them to contribute 2-4 hours of their time to helping improve Bard, the company's AI chatbot that it intends to integrate into search. Google kicked off "dogfooding," or internally testing, Bard on Tuesday, according to another memo seen by Insider. Read the full memo below:Hi Googlers,Excited to see us opening up Bard for an internal dogfood to help us get it ready for launch.

☆ Alphabet Chairman John Hennessy explains why Google was hesitant to put out its ChatGPT competitor
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Google 's Bard announcement last week was meant to show that the company has similar technology as the popular ChatGPT chatbot, even though it still has ways to go before becoming product-ready, Alphabet Chairman John Hennessy said Monday. Hennessy, who spoke on key trends for 2023, briefly touched on Google being caught in the sudden onrush of interest in ChatGPT and generative AI. Last week, the company launched its response to ChatGPT in a conversation technology it is calling Bard. However, the announcement had the appearance of being rushed to match Microsoft's inclusion of ChatGPT technology into its search engine, Bing, and investors punished Alphabet stock, sending it down 9% for the day. Hennessy said Google was slow to roll out its ChatGPT competitor in part because it's still giving wrong answers.

☆ Google, Microsoft ChatGPT Clones Will Destroy Internet Search
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

The other kind of search — "exploratory search" — is the hard one. That's where you don't know what you don't know. When you're scrolling through the links in a Google search, looking for "esoteric shit," as one search expert calls it, you see some pages that just look dodgy, maybe in ways you can't even totally articulate. But search chatbots can fake all that. Google's search pages already aren't fully trustworthy — they overindex YouTube video results, for example, because YouTube is a subsidiary of Google.

☆ Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said he will be 'enlisting every Googler' to help test Bard, its new ChatGPT rival, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Sundar Pichai said he'll ask all Google employees to help test Bard, its new ChatGPT rival, CNBC reports. "We're looking forward to getting all of your feedback — in the spirit of an internal hackathon," Pichai told staff. Sundar Pichai sent a company-wide email on Monday after the company announced that it was rolling out Bard over the next few weeks. "Next week, we'll be enlisting every Googler to help shape Bard and contribute through a special company-wide dogfood," Pichai wrote in the email, per CNBC. Bard appears to be similar to ChatGPT in that users can ask it questions and get an answer in response.

☆ Google CEO issues rallying cry in internal memo: All hands on deck to test ChatGPT competitor Bard
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google Inc. speaks during an event in New Delhi on December 19, 2022. Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees Monday the company is going to need all hands on deck to test Bard, its new ChatGPT rival. He also said Google will soon be enlisting help from partners to test an application programming interface, or API, that would let others access the same underlying technology. Pichai's note to employees also said search boss Prabhakar Raghavan will be "sharing progress" at an event in Paris later this week. Microsoft is reportedly planning to launch a version of its own search engine, Bing, that will use ChatGPT to answer users' search queries.

☆ UK Google employees may not know if they're being laid off until April, according to internal memo
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

UK-based Google employees may not know if their jobs are at risk until "early April." "I know many of you will be feeling anxious," Google's UK chief told staff in a memo this week. UK Google employees affected by the company's recent layoffs may not be notified that their jobs are in danger until April, according to a memo sent to staff on Tuesday. Matt Brittin, Google's executive overseeing Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, told UK employees that those whose roles were provisionally targeted for redundancy would know "by early April." "I know many of you will be feeling anxious," Brittin told employees in the memo.

☆ Google engineer who was laid off while on mental health leave says she 'silently mourned' after receiving her severance email at 2 a.m.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Google engineer said she found out she was laid off at 2 a.m. while on mental health leave. Google won't let her drop off her work laptop and other devices at the office, Neil said. Ali Neil, who started working at Google in 2020, told Insider she had been on mental health leave for just over three months when she discovered the tech giant had laid her off. Neil was among the roughly 12,000 employees that Google announced would be laid off from its global workforce. Google felt like a safe and stable environment, where the risk of being laid off was very low, Neil said.

☆ A Google engineer of 8 years says his 'spidey-senses' detected incoming layoffs — and felt 'isolated' when his 'faceless' severance email arrived
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

He said Google's severance email was "cold," "faceless," and made him feel "isolated." According to Bowling, Google had put in place travel restrictions for some employees, cut certain budgets, and implemented a temporary hiring freeze. Over the eight years he worked at Google, Bowling said the perks became "less interesting." Bowling said he was confused and checked his work email on his phone, but his account was missing. Chris McDonald, another laid-off Google engineer, told Insider he was in "a state of shock" after receiving his severance email at 3 a.m. on Friday.

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