Google Layoffs: Over 200 Gemini, AI Overviews Contractors Let Go in 'Ramp-down Effort'

Google has laid off more than 200 contractors working on its artificial intelligence projects, including Gemini and AI Overviews. Multiple workers told a news website that they were terminated abruptly, some learning about their contract ending through a single email with little to no context. The official explanation offered was “ramp-down,” a phrase that answers nothing. 

One of those affected, contractor Andrew Lauzon, described the experience as being “cut off without warning.” Lauzon, who joined through Hitachi-owned GlobalLogic in 2024, was part of the team tasked with rating and refining responses from Gemini, Google’s advanced chatbot. “How are we supposed to feel secure in this employment when we know we could go at any moment?” he said.

The latest round of layoffs hit a unique group of specialists known internally as “super raters.” These contractors held advanced degrees in fields such as education, literature, and the arts. Their work involved evaluating AI responses, rewriting them for clarity and tone, and ensuring the systems sounded more like people and less like machines.

Their contributions were central to the performance of Gemini and the AI Overviews feature that now appears in search results, summarising information in natural-sounding language. Ironically, the very people who helped make Google’s AI feel more human were let go with the kind of blunt detachment only a corporate email can deliver.

This is not the first instance of restructuring inside Google this year. In April, the company slashed roughly 25 per cent of its Google TV division after cutting the team’s budget by about 10 per cent. With the unit employing an estimated 300 people, that reduction likely translated into around 75 lost jobs.

Taken together, these moves show a company aggressively shifting resources, even as it spends billions chasing AI dominance. The cuts also expose the precarious position of contract workers, who often face lower pay, limited benefits, and no long-term stability.

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