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Noam Shazeer, Transformer Co-Author, Joins OpenAI; Google's Huge Investment Couldn't Keep Him
Noam Shazeer, a legendary AI researcher and a key author of the Transformer architecture, has officially announced that he is joining OpenAI. Major AI companies had been fiercely competing for this top talent, and OpenAI ultimately succeeded in bringing him on board.
This move has attracted significant attention in the tech community, as less than two years ago, Google spent roughly $2.7 billion to bring him back via a technology licensing agreement. Yet, within two years, the researcher—often called the "wizard" by his peers—has decided to leave Google once more.
The Mathematical Genius's Journey at Google
Noam Shazeer's technical career is remarkable. He earned a perfect score and a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad. He joined Google when it had about 200 employees, and he made foundational contributions to its spelling correction, search, and advertising systems.
His most notable achievement is co-authoring the seminal 2017 paper "Attention Is All You Need," which introduced the Transformer architecture. He is widely considered the paper's primary contributor, having invented nearly all the core technologies used in modern large models.
The Behind-the-Scenes Talent War Among Tech Giants
This marks Shazeer's second departure from Google. In 2021, he left because Google declined to release a chatbot he had built, leading him to found his own startup, Character.AI. Then, in 2024, Google spent a significant sum on a technology licensing agreement to bring him back, appointing him as the technical lead for the Gemini project.
With Shazeer's departure from Google, all eight authors of the original Transformer paper have now left Google, two of whom have chosen to join OpenAI. His arrival will undoubtedly boost OpenAI's R&D efforts and once again shift the talent balance between the two AI giants.
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Noam Shazeer, a legendary AI researcher and a key author of the Transformer architecture, has officially announced that he is joining OpenAI. Major AI companies had been fiercely competing for this top talent, and OpenAI ultimately succeeded in bringing him on board.
This move has attracted significant attention in the tech community, as less than two years ago, Google spent roughly $2.7 billion to bring him back via a technology licensing agreement. Yet, within two years, the researcher—often called the "wizard" by his peers—has decided to leave Google once more.
The Mathematical Genius's Journey at Google
Noam Shazeer's technical career is remarkable. He earned a perfect score and a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad. He joined Google when it had about 200 employees, and he made foundational contributions to its spelling correction, search, and advertising systems.
His most notable achievement is co-authoring the seminal 2017 paper "Attention Is All You Need," which introduced the Transformer architecture. He is widely considered the paper's primary contributor, having invented nearly all the core technologies used in modern large models.
The Behind-the-Scenes Talent War Among Tech Giants
This marks Shazeer's second departure from Google. In 2021, he left because Google declined to release a chatbot he had built, leading him to found his own startup, Character.AI. Then, in 2024, Google spent a significant sum on a technology licensing agreement to bring him back, appointing him as the technical lead for the Gemini project.
With Shazeer's departure from Google, all eight authors of the original Transformer paper have now left Google, two of whom have chosen to join OpenAI. His arrival will undoubtedly boost OpenAI's R&D efforts and once again shift the talent balance between the two AI giants.
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