As Google intensifies the race for artificial general intelligence (AGI) , the company's co-founder Sergey Brin has urged employees to spend more time in the office and work at least 12 hours a day (60 hours a week), The New York Times reports.
In an internal memo, Brin addressed employees working on Gemini, Google's flagship line of AI models, saying the company has every chance of becoming a leader in creating AGI — a system that matches or surpasses human intelligence — but only if the team ramps up its performance.
"I recommend being in the office at least every weekday," Brin wrote. He also noted that "60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity," emphasizing the need for more active work.
Brin’s statement does not change Google’s official policy on returning to the office, which requires employees to be present at least three days a week. A Google spokesperson declined to comment on whether the company plans to introduce stricter requirements for working from home. However, his words confirm a growing belief that the race for AGI is heating up, and Google must significantly step up its efforts to stay ahead of OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta.
"Competition has accelerated immensely and the final race to A.G.I. is afoot," Brin said. "I think we have all the ingredients to win this race, but we are going to have to turbocharge our efforts."
Brin also urged Google's engineers and researchers in the field of artificial intelligence to use their own AI models to write code as actively as possible, arguing that automating the development process will help accelerate the path to AGI.
"We need to become the most efficient coders and A.I. scientists in the world by using our own A.I." he emphasized.
Brin returned to Google in 2022, after the launch of ChatGPT, which sparked an AI revolution in Silicon Valley and forced Google to step up its efforts. Although the company had been a pioneer in developing large language models, OpenAI was far ahead of it, forcing Google to reconsider its strategy.
Since Brin's return, Google has reorganized its AI divisions under the Gemini brand and integrated AI into its most popular services. Just this month, the company expanded access to Gemini 2.0 models.
While Brin has been a proponent of productivity, he has also warned against overworking himself, saying that working more than 60 hours a week can lead to burnout. At the same time, he has criticized those he believes are not doing enough to advance Google's AI efforts.
"A number of folks work less than 60 hours and a small number put in the bare minimum to get by," he wrote. "This last group is not only unproductive but also can be highly demoralizing to everyone else."
Brin's call for a full return to the office is part of a broader trend in the tech industry, where many companies are doing away with flexible work schedules in favor of a full office presence. In September, Amazon announced that corporate employees will be required to work in the office five days a week starting in 2025.