US scientist John Jumper to leave Google DeepMind for Anthropic
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John Jumper, one of the three laureates who is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024, speaks during this year's Nobel Prize Lecture in Chemistry in Aula Magna, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden, December 8, 2024. TT News Agency/Pontus Lundahl vi
By Jaspreet Singh
June 19 (Reuters) - Senior research scientist John Jumper said on Friday he would leave Google DeepMind to join AI startup Anthropic, the latest high-profile departure at the Big Tech giant's AI lab.
Jumper, who won a Nobel prize alongside Google's Demis Hassabis in 2024, is best known as the co-creator of AlphaFold, a breakthrough AI that has predicted over 200 million protein structures, cutting years off biological and medical research.
"After nearly nine years, I have decided to leave Google DeepMind and join Anthropic," Jumper said in a post on X.
Technology giants including Meta and Alphabet, along with AI upstarts such as Anthropic and OpenAI are locked in a fierce talent war, competing for elite researchers as they race to build next-generation AI systems.
"There is so much demand for limited AI research talent that the frontier AI research labs are willing to do whatever it takes to add them. This puts OpenAI and Anthropic at an advantage over large companies like Google because they can promise less bureaucracy and a more focused effort on pursuing Superintelligence," said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria.
Jumper's surprise departure comes just days after Noam Shazeer, a vice president of engineering at Google and co-lead of its Gemini AI models, said he would leave the company to join IPO-bound OpenAI.
"What we achieved with AlphaFold changed the world, and showed the field what was possible with AI for science and medicine, lighting the way for how AI can benefit humanity," Hassabis said in a reply to Jumper's post.
Jumper serves as VP, Engineering Fellow, at Google DeepMind, according to his LinkedIn page. He is moving to Anthropic at a time when the startup is embroiled in a high-stakes legal and regulatory battle with the U.S. government.
Anthropic is hosting a science event on June 30. The startup did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment regarding Jumper's new role.
In the X post, Jumper described Google DeepMind as a "special place" and indicated his continued interest in its future discoveries.
"We are grateful for John’s significant contributions to Google DeepMind’s work in advancing science and AI. We wish him well in his next chapter," a Google DeepMind spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed response.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Franklin Paul)
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