When Google Paid 300 Per Cent Hike To An Employee To Stop Him From Joining AI Startup

During a recent episode of the Big Technology Podcast, Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI, highlighted the measures taken by major tech firms such as Google to retain their employees. Srinivas shared an anecdote in which the search engine giant offered to increase an employee’s salary by four times, which is a 300 per cent raise, in an attempt to prevent them from joining Perplexity AI.

Srinivas mentioned that the employee who received the substantial salary increase was a member of the “search team” and had no direct association with its AI division. Additionally, Srinivas discussed layoffs within the tech industry, noting that companies often target individuals with high salaries who do not contribute proportionately to productivity.

This coincides with Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s caution to employees about potential further job cuts, emphasising the necessity for the company to make “difficult decisions” in order to create capacity for future investments.

The individual in question belonged to Google’s search team and wasn’t directly associated with its AI division. Nevertheless, the company found it essential to substantially raise the offer to dissuade their departure. Srinivas, an alumnus of IIT-Madras, expressed his surprise at Google’s willingness to increase the offer to such an extent.

Srinivas further addressed the topic of layoffs in the tech industry, highlighting the ambiguity surrounding the criteria companies employ when deciding whom to lay off. Srinivas pointed out that, at companies like Google, employees can take lengthy vacations without adversely impacting operations. However, there appears to be a growing trend towards closely scrutinizing the correlation between output and compensation.

Earlier in January, Pichai had warned of more rounds of layoffs, as the company aims to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) software and automation to alleviate workloads. Google, striving to narrow the gap with Microsoft in the AI competition, recently unveiled its highly anticipated Gemini model. Last week, Google  expanded the reach of its Gemini app, a cutting-edge AI chatbot, and now made it accessible in more than 150 countries and territories globally, including in India.

This comes exactly a week after Google said it is rebranding its Bard chatbot to Gemini, alongside the launch of a standalone Gemini app for Android devices.

Since its launch, the Gemini app for Android has been garnering traction due to its innovative functionalities. Now, with support for English, Korean and Japanese languages, the Gemini app caters to a diverse audience, enhancing its accessibility and appeal. As stated on Google’s support page, the expansion to more than 150 countries is intended to democratize AI-driven conversations, making them accessible to a worldwide audience.