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| Noam Shazer |
As tech companies compete fiercely by offering substantial sums to secure top talent in artificial intelligence, Google has launched a massive deal to rehire Noam Shazeer.
Shazeer, co-author of a groundbreaking research paper that ignited the AI revolution, left Google in 2021 to start his own company after the tech giant declined to release a chatbot he developed.
However, when his startup, Character.AI, began to face difficulties, Google came back with a lucrative offer to have him return to his old position.
A $2.7 Billion Check
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Google wrote a check for nearly $2.7 billion to Character.AI. While the official reason for this payment was to license Character.AI’s technology, the deal also included Shazeer’s agreement to rejoin Google.
Inside Google, Shazeer's return is widely seen as the primary reason for the company agreeing to pay such an enormous licensing fee.
A Controversial Deal
The deal has sparked debate in Silicon Valley about whether large tech companies are overspending in the race to develop advanced AI, which some believe will shape the future of computing.
The 48-year-old engineer is now one of three key individuals leading Google’s efforts to develop the next generation of AI technology, known as Gemini.
As part of the deal, Shazeer earned hundreds of millions of dollars from his stake in Character.AI, according to sources, an unusually large sum for a founder who hasn't sold or publicly listed their company.
Frustration and Consequences
Shazeer first joined Google in 2000 as one of its early employees, among the first few hundred. His first major project was creating a system to enhance Google’s spell-check function.
Shortly after joining, he requested access to thousands of computer chips from then-CEO Eric Schmidt.
In 2017, Shazeer co-authored a research paper titled "Attention is All You Need" alongside seven other Google researchers, outlining a system capable of reliably predicting the next word in a sequence when prompted by humans. This became the foundation for the generative AI technologies that followed.
Shazeer also collaborated with fellow Google engineer Daniel De Freitas to develop a chatbot originally named “Meena,” capable of confidently engaging in conversations on a wide range of topics.
In a widely circulated memo titled "Meena Eats the World", Shazeer predicted that it could potentially replace Google’s search engine and generate trillions of dollars in revenue, according to people familiar with the document.
However, Google executives refused to release the chatbot to the public, citing concerns about safety and fairness. As a result, Shazeer and De Freitas resigned in 2021 to launch Character.AI.
A Chatbot Inspired by Musk
One year later, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT, demonstrating widespread public interest in AI-powered chatbots.
By the following March, Character.AI raised $150 million in a funding round, valuing the company at $1 billion.
Shazeer and his team hoped that users would pay to interact with chatbots that could offer practical advice or emulate famous personalities like Elon Musk and fictional characters like Percy Jackson.
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