Google Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer to join IPO-bound OpenAI

June 17 (Reuters) - Noam ‌Shazeer, a ​vice ​president of engineering at Google and co-lead of its Gemini artificial intelligence models, said ‌on Wednesday that he will leave the ⁠company to join IPO-bound ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

• Shazeer's move comes ‌as leading AI firms ‌compete for talent while racing to develop advanced models.

• The surprise departure comes less than two ​years after Google reportedly paid $2.7 billion to bring Shazeer, the former head of startup Character.AI, back ⁠to the company along with a team of his researchers.

• The ​timing of Shazeer's departure from Google was not immediately clear.

• In 2024, Google appointed ​Shazeer to co-lead the development ‌of its Gemini AI model, and he has been credited as key figure ⁠behind Gemini's ability to close the gap on OpenAI's ChatGPT.

• "I'm incredibly proud of the amazing team at Google ⁠and everything we've built together," Shazeer said on X, adding ​that he was "excited" to join OpenAI.

• "We are grateful for Noam's meaningful contributions to Google over the years," Google said in ‌a statement to Reuters.

• Shazeer joined Google in 2000 and was a co-author ‌of a seminal 2017 research paper that catalyzed ⁠the AI boom.

(Reporting by ‌Mrinmay Dey in ​Mexico City and Kenrick Cai in San Francisco; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Sherry ‌Jacob-Phillips)

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