Over 200 contractors who work on improving Google's AI products, including Gemini and AI Overviews, have been laid off, sources say. Workers enter a building on the Google headquarters campus on July 23, 2025, in Mountain View, California. More than 200 contractors who worked on evaluating and improving Google's AI products have been laid off without warning in at least two rounds of layoffs last month. The move comes amid an ongoing fight over pay and working conditions, according to workers who spoke to WIRED. In the past few years, Google has outsourced its AI rating work--which includes evaluating, editing, or rewriting the Gemini chatbot's response to make it sound more human and "intelligent"--to thousands of contractors employed by Hitachi-owned GlobalLogic and other outsourcing companies.

AI models are trained on vast swathes of data from every corner of the internet, by humans. AI models are trained on vast swathes of data from every corner of the internet, by humans. How thousands of'overworked, underpaid' humans train Google's AI to seem smart In the spring of 2024, when Rachael Sawyer, a technical writer from Texas, received a LinkedIn message from a recruiter hiring for a vague title of writing analyst, she assumed it would be similar to her previous gigs of content creation. On her first day a week later, however, her expectations went bust. Instead of writing words herself, Sawyer's job was to rate and moderate the content created by artificial intelligence. The job initially involved a mix of parsing through meeting notes and chats summarized by Google's Gemini, and, in some cases, reviewing short films made by the AI.

That's where Hitachi hopes to employ GlobalLogic's engineering know-how in manufacturing, energy and other sectors to expand further outside Japan, said Gajen Kandiah, chief executive of Hitachi Vantara, the firm's digital infrastructure segment. "Unfortunately, you only hear about a small group of companies that are maximizing data," he said. "You don't hear about the 99% that isn't." The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. Digital services and the data analytics that power them have been a competitive advantage for many companies during the pandemic, with global supply chains upended and employees and customers interacting virtually.