While many in the tech industry dream of a four-day workweek, Silicon Valley’s AI elite are embracing a grueling reality akin to wartime. For top researchers like Josh Batson at Anthropic, dopamine no longer comes from scrolling through social media but from Slack channels buzzing with discussions about language model experiments. Batson is part of a select group of AI researchers routinely clocking 80-100 hours a week.
“We’re trying to compress 20 years of scientific progress into two,” Batson says. Other leading researchers echo this sentiment, likening their workload to wartime intensity.
Executives from Microsoft, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and OpenAI describe their work as a relentless race against competitors to bring AI to the masses. Many have become millionaires, but with no time to spend their wealth, their lifestyles remain unchanged.
Once, the infamous “9-9-6” schedule - 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week - defined crunch time. Now, one startup executive jokingly calls their schedule “0-0-2”: midnight to midnight, with a two-hour break on weekends.
Some startups explicitly include expectations of 80+ hour workweeks in contracts. In larger companies, top researchers are driven not by mandates but by competition and intellectual curiosity.
To sustain this pace, companies have adapted. Offices provide meals on weekends, maintain 24/7 staff, and appoint rotating “captains” to monitor models every few weeks. Data from startup Ramp shows a surge in Saturday food delivery orders from San Francisco restaurants between noon and midnight, far exceeding previous years.
The gap between research breakthroughs and product launches has shrunk dramatically. “It’s gone from years to the time between Thursday and Friday,” says Aparna Chennapragada, Microsoft’s chief product officer for AI.
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Though the schedule is exhausting and leaves little room for family or personal life, researchers insist it’s a choice. “You have a ton of ideas, and it’s a race against time. You don’t want to lose them,” says Sevak, a leading researcher. She’s thrilled that top researchers are finally getting recognition: “The nerds are having their moment.” But the lifestyle remains spartan.
“No one takes vacations. People don’t have time for friends, hobbies, or loved ones,” Sevak adds. “All they do is work.”
