Unlocking Productivity: Google Co-Founder Reveals Why 60 Hours a Week is the Ideal Work Zone for AI Professionals

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, has a clear message for his AI team: spend 60 hours a week in the office. With rising competition from companies like OpenAI, Meta, and China’s DeepSeek, he believes this commitment is crucial for Google’s success in developing artificial general intelligence, which is AI that matches or surpasses human intelligence.

In a memo shared with employees, Brin emphasized that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot for productivity.” He urged his team, particularly those working on Google’s Gemini AI models, to be present in the office at least every weekday.

Brin didn’t hold back in his memo, expressing concern over some employees’ contributions. He noted, “Some work less than 60 hours while others do the bare minimum. This lack of effort isn’t just unproductive; it can be demoralizing for the rest of the team.”

This memo specifically targets Google’s AI teams and doesn’t apply to all employees. Currently, Google requires its staff to be in the office at least three days a week.

Although Brin stepped down as Google’s president in December 2019, he remains active on the board and continues to influence AI development. He played a significant role as a “core contributor” to the original white paper for Google Gemini.

Google is part of a fierce race among tech giants to create cutting-edge AI technologies. Just recently, competitors like OpenAI and Grok rolled out significant updates to their chatbots. Meanwhile, DeepSeek made headlines by unveiling a powerful AI model it claims to have trained for just $6 million, leading to a $1 trillion selloff in US markets.

This growing competition is prompting tech leaders to push their teams harder for results. For instance, Meta recently laid off around 4,000 employees, approximately 5% of its workforce, due to concerns over low performance. Mark Zuckerberg has also indicated that the coming year will be especially challenging for the industry.