Character.AI

History

  2024: Google strikes $2.7 billion deal with Character AI to bring back important AI developer

At the end of September 2024, it became known that Google paid $2.7 billion for licensing the technologies of the startup Character. AI in the field of artificial intelligence. This firm was founded in 2021 by former Google specialist Noam Shazeer.

Shazir, 48, joined Google in 2000. In 2017, he, together with another Google employee Daniel De Freitas, set about creating a Meena chatbot capable of conducting an easy dialogue on various topics. Shazir was confident in Meena's potential, saying that one day this AI could replace Google's search engine. However, the company's management refused to release the chatbot due to concerns about its safety and veracity. Disappointed, Shazir and De Freytas left Google and opened their own AI startup Character. AI, which in March 2023 raised $150 million at an estimate of $1 billion. As of September 2024, the number of monthly active users of Character.AI exceeds 20 million.

TechCrunch

According to The Wall Street Journal, Google's main goal in licensing Character.AI technologies was to return Shazir to the company: this is the point spelled out in the $2.7 billion agreement. Shazir himself is alleged to have made "hundreds of millions of dollars" from his stake in Character.AI.

Shazir moved to Google with Daniel De Freytas and a number of other Character.AI. Shazir took over as vice president of Google: he is among the three development leaders of the new version of the Gemini AI model. The high price paid by Google to bring Shazir and De Freytas back into its ranks is evidence of an expensive race among Silicon Valley tech giants to hire the best AI professionals.^[1]

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