Google spends Rs 22.6 lakh cr to rehire AI genius, Gemini to benefit

Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, two engineers who worked at Google, left the company in 2021 to pursue their vision of AI technology. They founded Character.AI, a startup that creates chatbots that allow users to have personalised conversations with both fictional and real characters. They aimed to do what Google was hesitant to do—release advanced conversational AI to the public.

Mr Shazeer is known for his key role in developing the transformer architecture, which underpins many modern AI applications, including chatbots. During his time at Google, he co-developed a chatbot called Meena, which was capable of discussing a variety of topics. Despite the promise of this technology, Google executives were reluctant to launch Meena due to safety concerns and potential risks.

Frustrated by the company’s caution, Shazeer and De Freitas decided to leave and start their own venture. They secured $43 million in funding and quickly developed Character.AI into a successful platform.

Prove your boss wrong!

Just three years after its founding, Character.AI attracted Google's attention again. According to The Wall Street Journal's report, the company offered Shazeer a deal of $2.7 billion (around 22.6 lakh crore rupees) to license the technology developed at his startup. This arrangement allows Google to accelerate its own AI development without undergoing a lengthy acquisition process.

As part of this deal, Shazeer is returning to Google in a senior role, leading efforts on the new AI project known as Gemini. This turnaround highlights how Mr Shazeer has not only proven his former bosses wrong but also changed the dynamics within the tech giant.

Is he more valuable than 13,000 staff?

The increasing investment in AI comes amid job cuts at Google, which has let go of over 13,000 employees since 2023. This raises questions about how a small team of engineers can be deemed more valuable than thousands of workers.  Mr Shazeer has pointed out that advanced conversational systems could potentially replace Google’s traditional web search, which is crucial to the company’s revenue. The hesitation to fully embrace this technology while it was still in development may have allowed competitors to gain an advantage.

As Google faces pressure to innovate, bringing back talented engineers like Mr Shazeer could be a smart move. By giving them more freedom to explore new ideas, Google may be investing wisely in its future.