According to The New York Times, Brin said Google would lead the industry in artificial general intelligence (AGI) if employees worked harder.

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At first appearing somewhat reasonable, he recommended that employees must be in the office “at least every weekday”. However, he went on to add that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity”.

Google's current return-to-office policy mandates employees to work in the office at least three days a week.

Hindustan Times reached out to Google and will update the copy if it gets a comment.

“A number of folks work less than 60 hours and a small number put in the bare minimum to get by,” he wrote. “This last group is not only unproductive but also can be highly demoralizing to everyone else,” he stated.

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“Competition has accelerated immensely and the final race to AGI is afoot,” he wrote. “I think we have all the ingredients to win this race, but we are going to have to turbocharge our efforts,” he added.

Meanwhile, he also encouraged the company's employees to use more of its AI for coding and called on Gemini team members to be “the most efficient coders and AI scientists in the world by using our own AI”.

The extended workweek debate: Who said what

Infosys Founder Narayana Murthy's 70-hour workweek debate was the first to start a row over work-life balance in October 2023. “India's work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Unless we improve…we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress…So therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say, ‘This is my country. I’d like to work 70 hours a week'," Murthy had said on former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai's podcast.

Larsen and Toubro (L&T) Chairman SN Subrahmanyan had also added fuel to the debate's fire, calling for employees to work 90-hour workweeks. “I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy because I work on Sundays,” he had said during an interaction with employees in January this year.

He had made another controversial remark in the same interaction saying, “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife? Come on, get to the office and start working.”

Shaadi.com Founder Anupam Mittal, OYO CEO Ritesh Agarwal and Emcure Pharma Executive Director Namita Thapar had also joined the debate, offering opposing viewpoints.