Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt apologised for the comments he made during a meet at Stanford, saying that Google had lagged behind in AI because of the company’s remote work policy. The recording of his lecture which had been posted by the University’s official YouTube channel was taken down on August 15 after garnering over 40, 000 views in a day. 

“Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning,” Schmidt said. “I’m sorry to be so blunt […] But the fact of the matter is, if you all leave the university and go found a company, you’re not gonna let people work from home and only come in one day a week if you want to compete against the other startups,” he said.

He added that AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic had raced ahead because the people there “work like hell.” 

Schmidt later told The Wall Street Journal that he had misspoken and regretted his statements. 

(For top technology news of the day, subscribe to our tech newsletter Today’s Cache)

The Verge also reported that he also discussed the copyright issues plaguing the AI business saying companies were typically more prone to act illegally and then “clean up the mess.”

Proposing TikTok as an example, Schmidt said that if the app were banned, the students could simply ask their LLMs to make a copy of the app, steal its users and music and produce a new app in under a minute and release it. 

He went on to add that while he wasn’t advocating for theft, business owners could easily hire lawyers later if the app went viral and if it didn’t then it wouldn’t matter anyway.

Schmidt was the chairman and CEO at the tech giant till 2015. He has invested in AI startups like Mistral AI while remaining an influential persona in Silicon Valley.