Google has appointed Noam Shazeer, a key figure in the AI industry, as a co-leader of its flagship AI project, Gemini.
Shazeer, who previously led the startup Character.AI, rejoined Google in August 2024, taking on a technical leadership role alongside Jeff Dean and Oriol Vinyals.
Shazeer originally joined Google in 2000, shortly after the company was founded, and spent over a decade contributing to its AI research and development.
He was a co-author of a groundbreaking 2017 research paper that played a key role in advancing AI technologies. His work has had a lasting impact on the industry, influencing the development of AI models like those used by Character.AI.
Character.AI, the chatbot company Shazeer founded in 2021, quickly gained recognition for its innovative use of AI technology. The company raised $193 million in funding and achieved a valuation of $1 billion in 2023.
Google’s decision to bring Shazeer back into its fold, along with several key employees from Character.AI, points to the tech giant’s strategy to leverage top-tier talent from the AI industry to bolster its own projects.
The Gemini project, led by Google’s DeepMind division, is a series of AI models that are being integrated into a range of Google products, including Search and Pixel smartphones.
With Noam Shazeer as a technical lead, Google aims to speed up the development and deployment of these models, ensuring they remain at the forefront of AI innovation.
In an internal email, Shazeer said: “We are excited to be part of the best team on the planet, working on the most impactful technology in the world.”
His return comes at a time when tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft are also acquiring top talent from AI startups.
