Noam Shazeer, vice president of engineering at Google and co-lead of its Gemini artificial intelligence models, announced on Wednesday that he is leaving the company to join OpenAI.
In a post on X, Shazeer said he was looking forward to working with the team at OpenAI. He described the move as a difficult decision and said he was proud of what he and his colleagues had built at Google, calling it an honour and a pleasure to work with the team.
Departure sparks discussion over impact on Google
Shazeer’s exit prompted widespread discussion on X, where many users described the move as a significant loss for Google. The reaction stems in part from Google's decision to spend $2.7 billion in 2024 to bring him back to the company through a licensing agreement tied to Character.AI.
