GoKawiilThe big picture: AI tools are being sold as a way to make work faster and easier. But employees at some of the companies building those tools say the opposite is happening inside their own workplaces. Current and former workers at OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google told the BBC that developing AI often involves long hours, weekend shifts, and constant pressure to meet product deadlines.
At OpenAI and Anthropic, some employees said major development pushes can last for weeks and involve more than 90 hours of work per week.
One former OpenAI technical employee said they worked at least 70 hours most weeks before leaving the company last year. They now work at another AI startup and said their schedule is closer to 50 to 60 hours a week, except during intense release periods known as sprints.
"You go in on Saturday or Sunday just to catch up or make sure things aren't broken," the person said.
That experience does not line up with the public message from many AI leaders. Google predicted several years ago that AI could help make a four-day workweek possible. Earlier this year, OpenAI encouraged companies to experiment with four-day schedules without cutting pay, saying AI would soon accelerate much of the work people do.
The former OpenAI employee said the company did not try a four-day workweek while they were there. Instead, they described regular "crisis meetings," weekend work and "super cut-throat" performance reviews that could lead to sudden layoffs. OpenAI and Anthropic did not respond to the BBC's requests for comment.
The workload is partly a result of the pace of the AI race. Companies are trying to improve models, build more computing infrastructure, and add AI features to products at the same time. That creates pressure on engineers, researchers and product teams to move quickly and fix problems as they arise.
Anthropic has said its Claude tool can work independently for seven hours on some tasks. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said AI will allow smaller teams to do more work. Yet employees say these systems are not reducing the amount of work expected from them. In many cases, they are simply being asked to produce more.
Meta workers described being moved onto AI teams with little warning. A current employee and a former employee told the BBC that workers called the process being "drafted." The former employee said people often had little meaningful choice about joining an AI project.
"They just move you over," the former employee said. "You can't say no – or if you do, you have to quit."
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