Google’s $2.7 Billion Move to Re-Hire AI Genius Draws Attention

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2024-09-25 20:30:04

Noam Shazeer, the co-author of a key research paper that sparked the AI boom, first joined Google in 2000 as one of the company’s first few hundred employees, but quit in 2021.

Google’s $2.7 billion dollar deal with AI leader Noam Shazeer is the latest and most eye watering check cut in a string of lucrative hiring transactions by tech leaders scrambling to woo prized artificial intelligence talent.

Shazeer, the co-author of a key research paper that sparked the artificial intelligence boom, first joined Google in 2000 as one of the company’s first few hundred employees, but left in 2021 to start his own company after the tech giant refused to debut a chatbot he created.

The AI “genius” went on to diss his former employer publicly, claiming Google had become overly risk-averse in its approach to AI development, before founding his own artificial intelligence startup, Character.AI.

Noam Shazeer first joined Google in 2000 but quit in 2021 to start his own company after the tech giant refused to debut a chatbot he created.