source: techcrunch ai: ai researchers continue to leave google for its rivals
level: business
ai researchers jonas adler and alexander pritzel are leaving google to join anthropic, according to a bloomberg report. both played key roles in developing google's gemini model. this follows the recent departure of noam shazeer, a long-time google researcher who left for openai after returning to google through the character.ai acqui-hire. days after shazeer's move, google deepmind director john jumper also announced he was joining anthropic. jumper, along with deepmind ceo demis hassabis, won the 2024 nobel prize in chemistry for his work on alphafold, which predicts 3d protein structures.
these exits highlight a growing trend of top talent leaving google for competitors. shazeer had been at google since 2000, except for a three-year stint building character.ai. google effectively paid $2.7 billion to bring him back to work on gemini, but he still chose to leave. jumper's departure is particularly notable given his nobel-winning contributions. the moves come as openai and anthropic prepare to go public, offering equity that may attract researchers seeking financial upside.
the loss of key researchers could impact google's ai development, especially for the gemini model. with rivals offering equity and new opportunities, google may face challenges retaining its top ai minds. the trend may continue as the ai industry grows more competitive and researchers weigh the benefits of joining companies on the verge of public offerings.
why it matters: the departure of key ai researchers from google to rivals could shift the balance of talent and innovation in the ai industry, affecting the development of future models and tools.
source: techcrunch ai: ai researchers continue to leave google for its rivals