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Google shells out a whopping $2,7 billion to bring back AI genius
According to a report by Wall Street Journal, Google invested US $ 2,7 billion to acquire artificial intelligence startup Character.AI, with the aim of rehiring Noam Shazeer, a former employee and one of the leading minds behind innovative AI bots.
Shazeer had left the company in 2021 after his chatbot project, created in collaboration with Daniel De Freitas, was rejected by the technology giant. tech. Now, with the acquisition of Character.AI, he is back at Google to lead its AI initiative, Project Gemini.
The acquisition represents much more than just access to Character.AI's technology, a platform that enables interactions with AI versions of celebrities and fictional characters.
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Google was also looking to secure the return of Shazeer, seen as a top AI talent, to help the company compete with rivals such as Microsoft-backed OpenAI.
Shazeer's trajectory
Noam Shazeer, a software engineer who joined Google in 2000, left the company in 2021 after a disagreement over the launch of his chatbot, Meena.
The bot had the potential to replace the company's search engine, but concerns about security and fairness caused Google to reject the project.
Shazeer then founded Character.AI together with De Freitas, and the startup quickly emerged as one of the most promising in Silicon Valley, reaching a valuation of US$ 1 billion in 2023.
Character.AI’s platform has particularly appealed to young people aged 18 to 24, offering not only language tutors and coding instructors, but also personalized interactions with AI celebrities and fictional characters.
The subscription-based model for faster response times and more pre-trained models has contributed to the startup’s success, which has amassed over 20 million monthly active users.
Despite criticism about the platform's use for romantic role-plays and sexual interactions, Character.AI has become a reference in the field of conversational AI.
This success, combined with Shazeer's expertise, led Google to decide to acquire the company, opting for a “reverse acquire-hire“, in which large corporations license technology from startups and hire their top talent without the need for a full acquisition.
Google's Project Gemini
Shazeer's return to Google is not only a win for the tech giant, but also a strategic move to accelerate the development of its next-generation AI, Gemini.
This project is seen as Google's answer to OpenAI's ChatGPT, which has already revolutionized the field of artificial intelligence since its launch.
While Gemini has faced challenges, such as the temporary suspension of its imaging feature due to system failures, Shazeer and his team are expected to overcome these obstacles and take Google's AI to the next level.
Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, has always believed in Shazeer's potential, even claiming that it would be capable of building an AI model with human-level intelligence.
The race for AI talent has led major companies like Google, Microsoft and Meta to take aggressive approaches to securing leadership in the field. Microsoft, for example, paid $650 million to acquire Inflection, a rival startup to OpenAI, in a bid to strengthen its teams and expand its technological capabilities.
In Google's case, the acquisition of Character.AI and the rehiring of Shazeer are indications that the company is willing to invest heavily to maintain its relevance in the AI market. The licensing strategy, in addition to allowing immediate use of Character.AI's technology, avoids the regulatory bureaucracy of a traditional merger, accelerating the innovation process within the company.
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