A hot potato: Like virtually every tech company today, Google is investing heavily in all things artificial intelligence. Not only is the firm pushing its own generative AI products, but it’s also using the technology to increase productivity. According to CEO Sundar Pichai, AI is being used to write around 25% of new code at Google.
During the company’s third-quarter 2024 earnings call, Pichai said Google is “using AI internally to improve our coding processes, which is boosting productivity and efficiency,” adding that more than a quarter of all new code at Google is generated by AI.
That sort of statement brings questions about AI replacing human jobs, the errors it introduces, and potential copyright issues, but Pichai says all the generated code is reviewed and accepted by engineers. The Google boss added that this helps the engineers do more and move faster.
AI-generated and AI-assisted code doesn’t have the best reputation. In 2022, a study found that when programmers had access to code-generating AI, their output was more likely incorrect or insecure compared to the “hand-made” solutions. In April 2023, another study that involving asking ChatGPT 517 software programming questions found that it got more than half of them wrong.
Generative AI is improving all the time, but even if it is making fewer mistakes these days, a study from earlier this month concluded that using AI coding assistants does not boost productivity or prevent burnout.
While Pichai mentioned that engineers still review and check AI-generated code, it’s easy to imagine that its use will eventually come at the cost of at least some jobs. It’s especially worrying in light of Anat Ashkenazi, Alphabet’s new CFO, stating that one of her top priorities at the company would be to drive more “cost efficiencies.”
Google parent Alphabet laid off 12,000 people, or 6% of its global workforce last year and has been cutting more employees in 2024. Ashkenazi, who had spent 23 years at Eli Lilly, praised the cost-saving measures implemented by the company, but said “any organization can always push a little further,” and she will be “looking at additional opportunities.”
It was reported earlier this week that Google was working on an AI agent called Jarvis that can take over a user’s PC. It’s supposed to automate everyday, web-based tasks by taking screenshots, interpreting the information, then clicking buttons or entering text.
