tech
Top AI researcher leaves Google for OpenAI
This shows the limits of acqui-hires.
TL;DR
- Noam Shazeer is departing Google to join OpenAI.
- Shazeer was co-lead of Google's Gemini and is a leading AI researcher in pretraining.
- Google previously acquired Shazeer and part of his team from CharacterAI for $2.7 billion.
- This move highlights the limitations of acqui-hires, where key talent can leave after retention periods.
- Shazeer's recruitment is a major advantage for OpenAI in the AI talent competition.