Mumbai, January 24: Google recently laid off nearly thousand employees from various departments. Now, the Google parent company Alphabet's X unit is reportedly laying off employees from the AI division. Google's X division is involved in development of AI related projects and highly experimental models. The unit is notably involved in projects related to smart contact lenses and autonomous vehicles. 

First reported by Bloomberg News, Google's semi-secret research and development facility is laying off employees to turn to external investors to help fund its ventures. This decision will impact Google's X support staff. According to the report by Hindustan Times, there is no official word about the layoffs in the Alphabet unit. Brex Layoffs: US-Based Fintech Company Lays Off 282 Employees, About 20% of Its Workforce in Restructuring Exercise.

The report mentioned that the CEO of Google's X had recently emphasised "lean teams". As per the report, the CEO stated that the unit will spin out more projects as independent companies funded through "market-based capital". Further, he stated that by doing this, Google's X unit will open the scope to collaborate with a "broader industry base and also partners". 

The report said that the layoffs will continue under Google's unit's "restructuring" plans. The Hindustan Times report mentioned that while raising capital in the past, the X unit ran into 'concerns' from the Alphabet leadership. In early January, Google laid off over 1,000 employees from voice assistance, hardware teams and more AR employees and even lost the Fitbit leaders. Vroom Layoffs: E-Commerce Company Announces To Shut Down Its Operations of Used Vehicle Dealership and Cut Nearly 90% of Jobs.  

About Google's X Unit - History and Other Details

The "X, the moonshot factory", also known as "X Development LLC", was founded by Google in January 2010. It is a research and development company that first developed Google Glasses and Google Brain, Makani's 20kW prototype energy kite, self-driving "Fireflys" prototype cars, Project Loon for internet connectivity and others. 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 24, 2024 03:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).