Google has made a deal with AI startup Character AI to use its large language model technology. At the same time, Google is bringing back the startup’s co-founders and important team members to its AI group.
Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, the co-founders of Character AI, are going back to Google, where they used to work. Google will have a non-exclusive license to use Character AI’s language model technology. Around 30 out of 130 employees from Character AI, mostly those focused on model training and voice AI, will be part of Google’s Gemini AI project. Character AI plans to use open-source models like Meta’s Llama 3.1 for its products instead of its own models.
This arrangement emphasizes the fierce competition for top AI talent, reflecting Microsoft’s recent collaboration with Inflection and Amazon’s deal with Adept. With AI becoming vital for tech companies, these talent acquisitions might alter the market and spark antitrust concerns.
