• Google to expand engineering team through 2026, leveraging AI to boost efficiency.
• Pichai: AI aids coding but has errors; no certain path to AGI.
• Google’s AI search aims to maintain high-quality web traffic, Pichai assures.

In San Francisco, Alphabet Inc.’s CEO Sundar Pichai announced that Google will keep growing its engineering team through at least 2026, despite its intensified focus on artificial intelligence (AI). Pichai emphasized that human talent remains vital to Google’s operations, even as AI reshapes workflows.

While other competitors like Microsoft have laid off workers because AI development is so costly, Google has decided to increase its engineering staff instead. Growth, as Pichai pointed out, will make it possible for the company to benefit from other possibilities. “I expect we will grow from our current engineering base even into next year, because it allows us to do more with the opportunity space,” says Pichai. He highlighted that AI tools are boosting engineer efficiency by automating repetitive tasks.

Pichai acknowledged AI’s limitations, noting its strength in coding but also its tendency for basic errors. On Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), he remained cautious: “So are we currently on an absolute path to AGI? I don’t think anyone can say for sure.”

Also Read: Microsoft Cuts 300+ Jobs, Shifts Focus to AI and Data Centers

While addressing concerns about Google’s AI-generated search answers reducing web traffic, Pichai defended the company’s approach. “We took a long time testing AI Overviews and prioritized approaches which resulted in high quality traffic out. I’m confident that many years from now that’s how Google will work,” he said, reaffirming Google’s commitment to the internet ecosystem.

At the same time, Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth brought up the changing attitude in Silicon Valley towards defense jobs. Working together with Anduril Industries, Meta now provides AR/VR helmets to the military, a change that highlights exactly this shift. “There’s a much stronger patriotic underpinning than I think people give Silicon Valley credit for,” Bosworth said. Discussions on AI and defense continued with executives from Anduril and Perplexity AI.