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2026-07-10 07:18:44 UTC
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Noam Shazeer Leaves Character.AI to Join OpenAI After Decade of Pursuit by Sam Altman

blueskybusinessinsider.comtimesofindia · 3 blocs · 21d ago

Noam Shazeer, co-lead of Google Gemini and co-founder of Character.AI, is leaving Character.AI to join OpenAI. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said it took a decade to hire Shazeer and that the hire will be worth the wait. Shazeer described his decision to leave Google as difficult and expressed pride in Google's team. The AI industry's competition for top researchers is intensifying.

Noam Shazeer, co-lead of Google Gemini and co-founder of Character.AI, is leaving Character.AI to join OpenAI. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said it took 10 years to hire Shazeer and that the hire will be worth the wait. Shazeer said it was a difficult decision to leave Google. He expressed pride in Google's team. According to businessinsider.com, Shazeer joined Google in 2000 and was rehired by Google in 2024 after leaving to found Character.AI. The Times of India reported that Shazeer claims to have invented the LLM revolution. The AI industry's competition for top researchers is intensifying.

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