Noam Shazeer, a prominent figure in the AI industry, has rejoined Google in a $2.7 billion deal that involves licensing technology from his startup, Character.ai. Shazeer, 48, originally joined Google in 2000 and made significant contributions to the company’s technological advancements during his two-decade tenure. In 2017, Shazeer co-authored a crucial research paper titled “Attention is All You Need,” which laid the foundation for modern generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google’s own AI offerings.
He also made notable improvements to Google’s search engine spell checker. However, in 2021, Shazeer left Google after the company decided not to launch a chatbot he developed alongside Daniel De Freitas due to concerns about the chatbot producing inappropriate responses. Following his departure, Shazeer and De Freitas launched Character.ai, a chatbot service that quickly gained traction, raising $43 million in seed funding and garnering hundreds of thousands of user interactions.
Last month, Google spent $2.7 billion to license Character.ai’s technology and rehire Shazeer, De Freitas, and other key staff.
Google’s latest AI acquisition effort
This move allows Google to enhance its AI capabilities without encountering regulatory issues that usually accompany full mergers, such as antitrust violations.
Shazeer now serves as a technical lead on Gemini, Google’s leading AI project, alongside other prominent AI experts. His return is expected to significantly influence Google’s future in AI, bringing both his visionary expertise and Character.ai’s cutting-edge technology into the fold. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been notably impressed with Shazeer, stating in 2015, “If there’s anybody I can think of in the world who’s likely to do it, it’s going to be him.” In 2017, Shazeer created Meena, a chatbot capable of engaging humans on a diverse range of topics, which he believed could one day replace Google’s search engine.
The $2.7 billion deal has sparked discussions about the potential for large tech companies to stifle competition and maintain dominance in emerging fields like AI. Critics argue that innovation and technological advancement depend on the survival of small, independent firms. In summary, Noam Shazeer’s return to Google through a high-stakes reverse acqui-hire deal underscores the tech giant’s focus on advancing AI technology and highlights the intense competition within the AI sector.
