MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently declared that artificial intelligence fueled by powerful computers was more important to humanity than fire or electricity. And yet the search giant increasingly faces a variety of messy people problems as well.
The company has vowed to employ thousands of human checkers just to catch rogue YouTube posters, Russian bots and other purveyors of unsavory content. It's also on a buying spree to find office space for its burgeoning workforce in pricey Silicon Valley.
For a company that built its success on using faceless algorithms to automate many human tasks, this focus on people presents something of a conundrum. Yet it's also a necessary one as lawmakers ramp up the pressure on Google to deter foreign powers from abusing its platforms and its YouTube unit draws fire for offensive videos , particularly ones aimed at younger audiences.
In the latest quarter alone, Google parent Alphabet Inc. added 2,009 workers, for a total of 80,110. Over the last three years, it hired a net 2,245 people per quarter on average. That's nearly 173 per week, or 25 people per day.
Some of the extra workers this year will come from its vow to have 10,000 workers across Google snooping out content policy violations that computers can't catch on their own, representing "significant growth " in personnel.
Alphabet on Thursday reported a fourth-quarter loss of $3.02 billion, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.
The Mountain View, California-based company said it had a loss of $4.35 per share, caused by provisions for U.S. tax changes enacted last year. Earnings, adjusted for pretax expenses, came to $9.70 per share.
The results missed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $10.12 per share.
The internet search leader posted revenue of $32.32 billion in the period. After subtracting Alphabet's advertising commissions, revenue was $25.87 billion, exceeding Street forecasts. Twelve analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $25.65 billion.
Alphabet shares were down 4 percent at $1,119.22 in after-hours trading.
———
Parts of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap ) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on GOOGL at https://www.zacks.com/ap/GOOGL
Post a comment as
Report
Watch this discussion.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Daily Journal Online Comment Policy
The goal of the story comments at dailyjournalonline.com is to have a community forum for the thoughts of our readers.
We strive to make sure this is an open, thought-provoking yet polite debate on the issues.
Report Abuse
If you feel a comment has violated our guidelines, please use the "Report Abuse" link under the comment.
Comments not edited
We do not edit comments. They are approved or denied.
Comments will be screened
All comments will be screened and may take several hours to be posted.
No Personal Attacks
Refrain from personal attacks or degrading comments.
Do not feed the trolls
Keep comments clear, concise and focused on the topic.
No Emails or Links
No advertising allowed. Do not post e-mails or links except for pages on dailyjournalonline.com or Government websites.
Be Courteous
Do not type with CAP LOCKS ON. Forgive spelling errors. No racism, sexism or any other sort of -ism that degrades another person.
Do not imply guilt
Do not convict a suspect of a crime before he or she has been proven so in a court of law.
Comment Length
Comments are limited to 1000 Characters. Characters remaining are posted on top left of comment box.
Assertions of questionable or unrelated information will decrease the likelihood of approval.
However we welcome such information in the form of news tips sent via our contact us page.