Google Rehires AI Engineer Shazeer

Shazeer joined for Google in 2000 and spent two decades in the company. He was one of the coauthors of the pathbreaking paper Attention Is All That You Need in 2017. It laid the foundation for AI.

He left Google a few years ago in frustration. He has now returned to Google through a process of rehire. The company took a bold and pricey decision to bring him back. They spent a sum of $2.7 billion to do so. Why such a hefty price? It is about the future of AI and the competitive scene. It sends a strong message — AI is the battleground. And a win here is necessary, whatever the cost.

‘It also raises the issue of Big Tech stifling competition to acquire valuable technology. Shazeer is the father of modern day AI chatbots. He created Meena which could hold intelligent conversations on a wide range of topics. Google refused to launch it. Shazeer, therefore, quit Google in 2021. They started Character.ai. It faced financial challenges. Google made available the finance to get Shazeer, his associate De Freitas and the tech team to be under its own roof. The arrangement was licensing of the technology, and rehiring the key staff, without acquiring the company. It is similar to MS deal for Inflection AI and Amazon’s partnership with Covariant.

It is an attempt to gobble up AI talent.

Shazeer will contribute to Gemini project.

We have to see closely the tech deals, and the way they will take AI forward. There should be a balance between Big Tech and emerging innovators.

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