Character.AI CEO Noam Shazeer Makes a Comeback to Google

In a significant development, Character.AI co-founder and CEO Noam Shazeer is set to return to Google, having left the tech giant in October 2021 to establish the a16z-backed chatbot startup. During his previous tenure, Shazeer led the team that developed LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), a cutting-edge language model that underpins various conversational AI tools.

Additionally, Character.AI co-founder Daniel De Freitas will also join Google, alongside several other team members from the startup. Meanwhile, Dominic Perella, Character.AI’s general counsel, is stepping in as interim CEO at the company. Notably, the majority of Character.AI staff will remain with the organization.

Google has also entered a non-exclusive agreement with Character.AI to utilize its technology. “I am very excited to return to Google and to be part of the Google DeepMind team. I take pride in what we have accomplished at Character.AI over the past three years. I believe the funding from this non-exclusive licensing agreement will empower Character.AI to continue thriving,” Shazeer stated in a press release.

While Google confirmed that Shazeer will be joining the DeepMind research team, it has not disclosed specific roles for either him or De Freitas. "We are particularly excited to welcome back Noam, a leading researcher in machine learning, who will be a vital addition to the Google DeepMind research team, alongside a few of his colleagues," a Google representative stated. The spokesperson also highlighted that this partnership would enhance funding for Character.AI to further develop and offer personalized AI solutions for users worldwide.

Character.AI has successfully raised over $150 million in funding, primarily from a16z. "When Noam and Daniel founded Character.AI, our vision of personalized superintelligence required a comprehensive approach. We needed to pre-train models, enhance them for seamless user experiences, and create a platform capable of reaching users on a global scale," Character.AI explained in its blog post about the transition.

"However, the landscape has evolved over the past two years, with a wider array of pre-trained models now accessible. Given these changes, we recognize the benefits of integrating third-party LLMs alongside our proprietary technology. This strategic shift allows us to focus on post-training and innovating new product experiences for our expanding user community."

There is a possibility that various regulatory bodies, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) in the U.S., as well as European Union authorities, will closely examine these reverse acqui-hires. Recently, the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced it is investigating Microsoft’s recruitment of pivotal personnel from Inflection AI to assess whether the company is attempting to evade regulatory scrutiny. Similarly, the FTC opened an inquiry in June regarding Microsoft’s $650 million acquisition deal.

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