Google's Sergey Brin urges employees to work 60 hours a week to win 'the final race to AGI'

Sergey Brin has been more involved in Google’s AI work since early 2023, and he’s pushing for a big shift, using AI to improve AI itself.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has recommended employees work 50 percent longer than the standard 40 hours, claiming it was required for the tech giant to win the AGI race. The artificial general intelligence race (AGI) refers to AI that’s as smart as or smarter than humans.

In an internal memo accessed by the New York Times, Brin told employees working on developing the company’s suite of AI products that he recommends them being in the office “at least every weekday” and that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity.”

While he called out employees who were putting in fewer hours, Brin also cautioned them against working more than 60 hours a week, adding that it could lead to burnout.

“A number of folks work less than 60 hours and a small number put in the bare minimum to get by,” he reportedly wrote in the memo. “This last group is not only unproductive but also can be highly demoralising to everyone else.”

Highlighting the urgency to develop AGI, Brin added, "Competition has accelerated immensely and the final race to AGI is afoot... I think we have all the ingredients to win this race, but we are going to have to turbocharge our efforts.”

AGI is often described as AI that can think, learn, and solve problems like a human, rather than being limited to specific tasks. While there’s no universal definition of AGI, many AI companies, including Google, see it as the ultimate goal.

Brin has been more involved in Google’s AI work since early 2023, and he’s pushing for a big shift, using AI to improve AI itself. He wants Google’s engineers to rely more on their own AI tools for coding, believing that this is the key to reaching AGI.

The memo comes at a time when competition is heating up. Google’s DeepMind, led by Demis Hassabis, has been working toward AGI for years. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman recently said they already know how to build AGI and are now aiming for something even more powerful—superintelligence.