Google's Latest AI Move: Bringing Character.AI Founders Back into the Fold
Noam Shazeer, co-founder and CEO of Character.AI, is returning to Google after leaving in October 2021 to found the startup.
During his previous tenure at Google, Shazeer led the team that developed LaMDA, a language model for conversational AI.
Daniel De Freitas, the other co-founder, is also joining Google along with some other Character.AI employees.
Dominic Perella, previously Character.AI's general counsel, is becoming the interim CEO of the startup.
Most of Character.AI's staff will remain with the company.
Google has signed a non-exclusive agreement to use Character.AI's technology.
Character.AI has raised over $150 million in funding, primarily from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
This deal, like similar recent moves by big tech companies, may face scrutiny from regulatory bodies such as the FTC, DoJ, and EU authorities.
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Google specifically mentioned welcoming back Noam Shazeer to join Google DeepMind's research team.
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