Transformer co-inventor Noam Shazeer jumps from Google to OpenAI
Noam Shazeer, co-inventor of the Transformer architecture and former Character.AI co-founder, just announced he is joining OpenAI after leaving Google. Shazeer called it a difficult transition while praising the team he built at Google. Snagging one of deep learning's most foundational minds gives OpenAI a massive talent win in the frontier AI race.
One of the most consequential minds behind modern AI is changing teams again.
Noam Shazeer, co-inventor of the foundational Transformer architecture, announced that he has left Google to join OpenAI.
The architect behind modern LLMs moves to OpenAI
Shazeer shared on X that moving on was a difficult decision, adding that he is incredibly proud of the team and work built at Google and looks forward to working with OpenAI.
His trajectory has been a wild ride in the AI talent wars. After originally departing Google to co-found Character.AI, Shazeer returned when Google acquired the startup. Now, he is heading straight to Google's primary rival.
Why it matters
At a time when frontier labs are racing toward the next architectural breakthroughs beyond standard scaling, securing Shazeer is a massive win for OpenAI.
For Google, losing a legendary researcher so soon after acquiring his startup looks like a tough blow to morale and retention in its core research ranks.
We think this move shows that the battle for the top fraction of a percent of AI researchers is as fierce as ever. Shazeer's arrival could directly shape OpenAI's next-generation model designs as the industry searches for what comes after pure autoregressive transformers.
Sources (1)
- @NoamShazeer(opens in a new tab)Originalx.com