Anika Begay
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who has since moved on to greener and perhaps more dangerous pastures, recently told an audience of Stanford students that “Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning.” This heated statement was apparently not intended for a wider audience, as Stanford, which posted the video this week on YouTube, has now made the video of the event private.
It wouldn’t be surprising if it was at the behest of the talent. “I have spoken badly about Google and its work schedule,” Schmidt said in an email statement to TechCrunch. “I regret my mistake.”
Several news outlets have already run headlines about the video, and 1.4 million people have seen a clip of Schmidt harshly criticizing Google’s remote work practices on X.
At another point in the video, Schmidt tells the audience to keep what he’s saying to himself, then looks a little surprised when his interviewer points to the cameras in the room. At another point, he tells the audience that AI startups can steal intellectual property and hire smart lawyers to clean it up later, once they’ve created a successful product. Presumably, the former Google CEO didn’t know the entire interview would be published online.
