Google spends $2.7 billion to re-hire AI expert Noah Shazer, causing shock in the industry! Behind this huge investment is the fierce competition among technology giants in the battle for AI talents, and it is also a huge bet on the future development direction of AI technology. The editor of Downcodes will take you to understand the details of this transaction and its potential impact on the entire AI industry.
Recently, Google spent a whopping $2.7 billion to return to the company for an AI expert. This expert is named Noam Shazeer, who founded his own start-up company Character.AI after leaving Google in 2021. The company has become a popular project by allowing users to interact with role-playing chatbots.
Picture source note: The picture is generated by AI, and the picture is authorized by the service provider Midjourney
According to the Wall Street Journal, the main reason why Google gave this huge sum of money was actually to attract Shazer back. Although the official explanation is to obtain his technology license, industry insiders generally believe that the money is mainly to allow Shazer to work for Google again. This also highlights the determination of technology companies to spend heavily in order to gain an advantage in the current AI competition.
Many investors are concerned about this, especially when companies like Google and Microsoft are burning money like crazy with no returns in sight. They question whether it's really worth spending so much money to secure an expert, or whether it's creating a bubble that's about to burst.
It is worth mentioning that although Chazer did not directly receive this huge sum of money from Google, he also received hundreds of millions in income from his own start-up company. For him, this income is considerable because he did not sell his company. Shazer was an important figure in early AI development at Google, and a 2017 paper he co-authored is considered the beginning of modern large-scale language models. Chazer also boasts on social media, claiming that he "invented much of the current big language model revolution."
When Shazer left in 2021, Google refused to release a chatbot called Meena due to security reasons, and this decision was considered a huge mistake, because the following year OpenAI launched ChatGPT rapidly received widespread attention.
Now, with Shazer returning to Google, Silicon Valley technology giants are competing for AI research talents. For example, Amazon also hired executives from the startup Adept through a technology licensing agreement in June. Even as companies invest heavily in AI technology, investors continue to ask: Is it really worth it?
Highlight:
? Google paid a staggering $2.7 billion to rehire AI expert Noah Shazer.
Shazer's startup, Character.AI, also received hundreds of millions in proceeds from the deal.
Silicon Valley technology giants are vying for AI research talents, and concerns about a market bubble are gradually emerging.
The sky-high price of US$2.7 billion not only shows Google’s thirst for AI talents, but also reflects the increasingly fierce competition in the AI field. The subsequent impact of this transaction and the future development of the AI industry deserve our continued attention. The editor of Downcodes will continue to bring you more technology information.