Google’s newest workplace has AI designers working in a Wi-Fi desert.
Google has been extolling the various advancements in the first building entirely planned and constructed by the web giant, even transferring personnel there to concentrate on its most visible project: generative artificial intelligence. However, others say they wish the advances had included good Wi-Fi.
According to six individuals familiar with the situation, the “Bay View” building at the Alphabet headquarters in Mountain View, California, has been plagued with unusable or, at best, intermittent Wi-Fi for months.
Its recliner-laden collaborative workplaces are not ideal for teams transporting computers, since employees must connect into ethernet cables at their workstations to get constant internet access. Some people make do with utilizing their phones as hotspots.
The corporation marketed the new building and surrounding campus in a 229-page glossy brochure that highlighted its cutting-edge features, such as “Googley interiors” and “an environment where everyone has the tools they need to be successful.”
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However, a Google spokesperson said, “We’ve had Wi-Fi connectivity issues in Bay View.” She claimed Google “made several improvements to address the issue,” and the firm anticipated to have a solution in the coming weeks.
According to one AI engineer assigned to the building, which also houses members of the advertising team, the malfunctioning Wi-Fi has done nothing to aid Google’s quest for a three-day return-to-work rule.
“You’d think the world’s leading internet company would have worked this out,” he went on to say. He, like others, talked to Reuters on the condition of anonymity because Google has not granted them permission to discuss working conditions.
Managers have advised employees to take a walk outdoors or relax in the nearby café, where the Wi-Fi connection is better. Some were just given new computers with more powerful Wi-Fi processors.
Google has not officially divulged the causes of the Wi-Fi issues, but employees claim the 600,000-square-foot building’s swooping, wave-like rooftop swallows bandwidth like the Bermuda Triangle.
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Under that enormous dome, Google workers are rushing to release the most recent versions of Gemini, the company’s powerful artificial intelligence program that is critical to its future. Such AI has become a Silicon Valley sensation after the widespread release of ChatGPT in late 2022.
When asked by Reuters whether the campus had enough Wi-Fi, Gemini seemed cautiously confident. “It is highly likely that the Bay View campus has Wi-Fi,” the software said.
“As the headquarters of a major tech company, Google, it would be surprising if it did not.”
