Late this summer, Google terminated the contracts of over 200 people who had been working to enhance the company’s artificial intelligence products, including the much-anticipated Gemini AI model and Google’s new AI-generated search summaries wired.com wired.com. The cuts were sudden and executed in at least two rounds, with many contractors reporting they were locked out of work accounts without warning ndtv.com. When some workers asked why they were being let go, they were told it was due to a “ramp-down” of the project – a vague explanation that left them frustrated. “I was just cut off… I asked for a reason, and they said ramp-down on the project — whatever that means,” recalls Andrew Lauzon, one of the affected AI raters wired.com wired.com.