Last month, Google fired more than 200 contractors without warning who worked on improving and evaluating Google's artificial intelligence products, including Gemini and AI Overviews. The layoffs included contractors hired by US company GlobalLogic.
Last month, Google fired more than 200 contractors without warning who worked on improving and evaluating Google's artificial intelligence products, including Gemini and AI Overviews. The layoffs included contractors hired by US company GlobalLogic.
This is reported by Wired, citing its own sources.
Over the past few years, Google has outsourced the work of improving its AI to thousands of contractors, hired by US company GlobalLogic, which became part of Japanese conglomerate Hitachi in 2021, and other outsourcing firms. The workers were tasked with evaluating, editing, and rewriting the Gemini chatbot’s responses to make them more natural and of higher quality.
Most of the evaluators working at GlobalLogic are based in the United States and work on English-language content, the publication notes. Similar to moderators who help clean and categorize content on social media, these workers use their experience, skills and judgment to train chatbots and other AI products, including Google’s search results feature called AI Overviews, to provide the right answers to a wide range of topics. Workers say the latest cuts come amid efforts to quell their protests over issues such as pay and job insecurity.
These workers, often hired for their specialized knowledge, were required to have a master's or doctorate to join the super rater program and typically include writers, teachers, and people in creative fields.
Google is reportedly working on developing an AI model to evaluate AI responses, although it's unclear whether it's mature enough to take over what humans have been doing.
Instead, many believe that it was their grievances about compensation that led to their dismissal. Wired claims that the workers “tried to unionize” earlier this year, but were unsuccessful. According to the report, “they allege that the company retaliated against them.” Two of them have filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board. For its part, Google has said that GlobalLogic is responsible for its employees’ working conditions.
“These individuals are employees of GlobalLogic or its subcontractors, not Alphabet,” said Courtney Mancini, a Google spokeswoman. “As employers, GlobalLogic and its subcontractors are responsible for the employment and working conditions of their employees. We take our supplier relationships seriously and review the companies we work with for compliance with our Supplier Code of Conduct.”
GlobalLogic declined to comment.
tl;dr
Їх замінила аішка Gemini (ні) 😂