Sergey Brin says AGI is within reach if Googlers work 60-hour weeks

Sergey Brin co-founded Google in the 1990s along with Larry Page, but both stepped away from the day to day at Google in 2019. However, the AI boom tempted Brin to return to the office, and he thinks everyone should follow his example. In a new internal memo, Brin has advised employees to be in the office every weekday so Google can win the AI race.

Just returning to the office isn’t enough for the Google co-founder. According to the memo seen by The New York Times, Brin says Googlers should try to work 60 hours per week to support the company’s AI efforts. That works out to 12 hours per day, Monday through Friday, which Brin calls the “sweet spot of productivity.” This is not a new opinion for Brin.

Brin, like many in Silicon Valley, is seemingly committed to the dogma that the current trajectory of generative AI will lead to the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Such a thinking machine would be head and shoulders above current AI models, which can only do a good impression of thinking. An AGI would understand concepts and think more like a human being, which some would argue makes it a conscious entity.

To hear Brin tell it, Google is in the best position to make this AI computing breakthrough. He cites the company’s strong workforce of programmers and data scientists as the key, but he also believes the team must strive for greater efficiency by using Google’s own Gemini AI tools as much as possible. Oh, and don’t work from home.

Brin and Page handed the reins to current CEO Sundar Pichai in 2015, so his pronouncement doesn’t necessarily signal a change to the company’s current in-office policy. Google still operates on a hybrid model, with workers expected to be in the office three days per week. But as a founder, Brin’s voice carries weight. We reached out to Google to ask if the company intends to reassess its policies, but a Google rep says there are no planned changes to the return-to-office mandate.