News Summary

• Alphabet’s life sciences arm Verily laid off staff and eliminated its entire devices program Monday.
• CEO Stephen Gillett announced the “difficult decision” to wind down the program in a staff memo.
• The company has conducted multiple rounds of layoffs in recent years, including cuts to its HR and cloud units in February and voluntary exit programs for its more than 25,000 Platforms & Devices employees in spring.
• In January 2023, it slashed 12,000 jobs — 6% of its workforce at the time — in anticipation of an economic slowdown.
• That same month, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer software application in history, gaining over 100 million users in two months.