Google is laying off hundreds of staff working on Google Assistant and members of its devices and services team. The layoffs, which Semafor and 9to5Google first reported, were announced on Wednesday.

Recently, voice-activated devices have accumulated and transformed ... user engagement with smart speakers such as Amazon Echo and Google Home voice assistants embedded in smartphones and other ...

The voice-activated devices are becoming more mainstream as they become more accessible. Even Apple has one coming out this year. Walmart has said Google's investment in natural language ...