Gemini’s co-lead is leaving Google to join OpenAI

Noam Shazeer, VP of engineering at Google and co-lead of Gemini, announced he is leaving Google to join OpenAI. Shazeer previously founded Character.ai and returned to Google in 2024 via a licensing deal. His departure marks a significant talent shift between the two AI leaders.

VP of engineering at Google and the co-lead of Gemini, Noam Shazeer, has announced he is departing his role to work at OpenAI. Noam Shazeer announced in a post on Twitter/X https://x.com/NoamShazeer/status/2067400851438932297 this evening that he would be departing Google to join OpenAI. His new role wasn’t mentioned in the post, but it’s a major change seeing as Shazeer is a co-lead over Gemini and a VP of Engineering at Google, a role he’s been at since August of 2024 according Shazeer’s LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/noam-shazeer-3b27288/ . Prior to his work as a Gemini co-lead, Shazeer worked as a software engineer from 2000 through 2021, acting as the CEO of Character.ai from late 2021 through 2024 when he returned to Google. A licensing deal between Google and Character.ai https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/google-hires-characterai-cofounders-licenses-its-models-information-reports-2024-08-02/ :~:text=%22We%27re%20particularly%20thrilled%20to%20welcome%20back%20Noam%2C%20a%20preeminent%20researcher%20in%20machine%20learning%2C%20who%20is%20joining%20Google%20DeepMind%27s%20research%20team%2C%20along%20with%20a%20small%20number%20of%20his%20colleagues%2C%22%20a%20Google%20spokesperson%20said%20in%20an%20email. was made that same month. Speaking to Reuters , Google said that the company is “grateful for Noam’s meaningful contributions to Google over the years.” Follow Ben: Twitter/X https://twitter.com/NexusBen , Threads https://www.threads.net/@nexusben , Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/nexusben.com , and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nexusben FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. https://9to5mac.com/about/ affiliate our homepage http://9to5google.com/ for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on exclusive stories https://9to5google.com/feature/exclusive/ , reviews https://9to5google.com/guides/reviews/ , how-tos https://9to5google.com/guides/how-to/ , and subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/9to5google