Some Google employees are allegedly getting paid to do… nothing

The post Some Google employees are allegedly getting paid to do… nothing appeared first on Android Headlines.

Apr 8, 2025 - 12:13

Summary: Some Google AI employees are getting paid to do nothing. Google would rather pay them than lose them to competitors. Noncompete agreements are also an issue in the UK, it would seem.

A rather interesting new report has surfaced. Google is allegedly paying some AI employees while they don’t do any work. The company doesn’t want to risk losing them to rivals, which is why.

Some Google employees are getting paid to do… well, nothing

The information is coming from Business Insider and is related to Google’s AI division, DeepMind. The competition between Google, OpenAI, and other companies is seemingly so fierce, that Google is willing to do this in order to retain talent.

It’s reported that DeepMind is actually resorting to “Aggressive” noncompete agreements for some of its AI staff in the UK. That basically prevents them from working for competitors.

Noncompete agreements are an issue for some Google employees in the UK

It is worth noting that in the US, FTC banned most noncompetes last year, but that doesn’t apply to the UK. In this case, the report is related to DeepMind’s London branch. Well, it’s the company’s London headquarters, actually.

Another interesting detail comes from Microsoft’s VP of AI. The information was published last month, when he said that DeepMind staff are reaching out to him “in despair”. They find it difficult to expace their noncompete clauses.

TechCrunch has asked Google for a comment related to all this, but has not received it just yet. All in all, it’s very interesting, for several reasons.

The competition in the AI sector is fierce

The competition in the AI space really does seem to be that fierce. Google is willing to pay employees to do nothing just to retain them in the company. Losing them to rivals is basically the worst-case scenario.

Chances are that some other companies are doing the same, but we haven’t heard anything about that just yet. Many companies see AI as both the present and the future, and quality employees are hard to come by.

The post Some Google employees are allegedly getting paid to do… nothing appeared first on Android Headlines.