The high cost of developing AI

Developing AI is expensive. To pay for it, Google spent $2.1 billion on severance last year laying off more than 12,000. And just this month, its already spent $700 million on employee severance. 

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The high cost of downsizing.
Welcome to the Know the Difference Minute for Wednesday, January 31st.
Developing AI is expensive.
Case in point: Google.
4th quarter revenue up 13% year-over-year to $86 billion. Search generated $48 billion. Subscription services which include AI projects brought in nearly $11 billion. Cloud revenue was up over 25%.
But the cost of developing AI is high. In order to feed the beast, Google is handing out pink slips. And those layoffs aren’t cheap. they spent $2.1 billion on severance last year laying off more than 12,000. And just this month, its already spent $700 million on employee severance.
Google’s not alone. There are plenty of stories about tech companies downsizing. In the first four weeks of this year, nearly 100 tech companies, including Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, TikTok , and Salesforce have collectively let go of about 25,000 employees.
I’m Dave Spano from Annex Wealth Management. That is your Know the Difference Minute.