Google Cuts 200 Jobs; Laid-Off Workers Say Fired After 'Training AI To Replace Them'

Google let go of 200 contract workers who worked on gauging and assessing the quality of its AI products in two rounds of layoffs in the previous month, according to Wired report on Tuesday.

Workers alleged that the firing took place as they were protesting poor work and pay conditions and also said that they were made to train AI to replace them.

The workers were mostly from Hitachi-owned GlobalLogic and were tasked with training Google's Gemini chatbot so that its responses sound sharper and "human". Workers reported rewriting responses and were also assigned to work on Google web browser's 'AI overviews', which summarise requested information and display it right under the search bar for queries.

Wired said that it received access to internal documents from Google which indicate that Google was using human evaluators to train its Google AI system to automatically classify the efficacy of its responses, thus eliminating the requirement for humans to do the same.

This was also confirmed by workers who were still with the company, who said that they worried that they were training their replacements. The workers were also required to be exceedingly qualified, needing a master's degree and a PhD to qualify for the rating job, and were often writers, teachers and others from creative fields.

Workers testified to receiving termination notifications often without prior notice.

They reported facing pay discrepancies, between them and other third-party contractors who were hired to do the same job. They also said that they were given additional high-pressure responsibilities but not a proportionate pay increase. The workers reported being given "task timers" set to five minutes per task with threats of being laid off on failure to complete them.

They stated that when they tried to unionise via interaction through digital social spaces, which were then restricted by the company. These spaces were also used for social interaction regarding various interests by writers, queer workers and gamers, and was a forum where friendships were made.

One of the employees said that they were fired after continuing to use the social spaces and filing an official whistleblower complaint with Hitachi.

Wired further stated that Google was using a variety of methods to get its workers to quit on their own accord.

One such method was making it compulsory for its workers in Austin, Texas to return to the office. Those with disabilities, caregiving responsibilities and financial constraints were unable to do so.