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

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.

Google said it paid Character around $2.7 billion to license the company’s technology in August. Individuals with knowledge of the deal, however, told The Wall Street Journal that the transaction included an unofficial stipulation: Google wanted Shazeer back.

The AI expert is now one of three people leading Google’s efforts to create the next version if its AI technology, Gemini.

Google declined to make Shazeer available for an interview nor did he respond to requests for comment when approached by the Journal.

The tech giant’s agreement with Shazeer’s company has thrown the AI leader into a growing debate in Silicon Valley about potential overspending in the AI race.

Highly skilled talent in the growing sector is hard to come by. And, while the tech industry has experienced recent widespread layoffs, the industry leaders have been shelling out millions to hire research scientists, many of whom would be confined to academia, working to expand artificial intelligence into new arenas.

Some companies have resorted to poaching talent from competitors, with OpenAI in 2023 offering Google employees $10 million pay packages to join Sam Altman’s firm. The company used similar tactics to woo Meta employees, The Information reported.

In March, Microsoft announced it spent $650 million in a deal with AI startup Inflection through which they on-boarded the company’s co-founders and a number of its staff. The Federal Trade Commission, in June, opened a probe into Microsoft’s “hiring decision” due to concerns that the company’s investment in Inflection constituted an acquisition that the tech giant failed to disclose to the government.

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Speculation about possible further scrutiny from regulatory bodies has grown as additional “reverse acqui-hires” emerge in the AI industry.