Read more: Goldman Sachs' Alok Oberoi and Bellavita's Aakash Anand are investing in a Delhi-based tech startup. Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas founded Character. AI, which has become one of Silicon Valley's most sought-after AI startups, achieving a $1 billion valuation last year. Following this success, Google announced that both Shazeer and De Freitas would be joining its AI division, DeepMind. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Google paid Character. AI $2. 7 billion for licensing its technology and securing Shazeer’s employment at the company. Read more: Employee in Thailand passes away at work after manager refuses sick leave; CEO expresses devastation. The licensing agreement grants Google instant access to Character. AI’s intellectual property, bypassing the need for regulatory approval. The article noted that Shazeer’s return to Google is seen as a pivotal reason behind the acquisition from the perspective of the company’s employees. Read more: Flipkart apologizes for an advertisement labeling husbands as 'aalsi, bewakoof': 'Posted in error. ' Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was reportedly impressed by Noam Shazeer, which contributed to Shazeer developing an AI model capable of operating with human-like intelligence.

“If there’s anybody in the world who’s likely to do it, it’s going to be him, ” Schmidt said of Shazeer back in 2015. In 2017, Shazeer created Meena, a chatbot designed to engage in diverse conversations with humans. He was so confident in Meena’s potential that he suggested it could eventually replace Google’s search engine. However, Google executives thought it was too risky to launch Meena, citing concerns over safety and fairness, according to the Journal. Shazeer will now spearhead the efforts to develop Gemini, Google’s next-generation AI model intended to compete with rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.