In the past year or so, top AI researchers from Google have left to launch start-ups around large language models [...]
When Google laid off 12,000 employees last week, CEO Sundar Pichai wrote that the company had undertaken a rigorous review to focus on its highest priorities, twice referencing its early investments in AI.
These things may be unconnected (and the article suggests that the AI researchers left Google well before Google started laying off employees), but I wonder how much the economical problems contributed to the new startups appearing.
I imagined that Google has tons of money and not many good ideas, so the best strategy for them is to buy everyone who seems capable of doing something useful. Even if they couldn’t use such people, at least they would deny them to a potential competition. I wasn’t paying attention lately, seems like the situation has changed dramatically. I kinda assumed that no matter what happens, Google is too rich to be significantly impacted.
So I wonder how much of the motivation for the AI researchers was “I am sitting on a potential gold mine” and how much of it was “Google is going to lay off many people soon, I better have a Plan B”.
Or maybe there is no connection, and the same thing would have happened also in a parallel timeline where Google has enough money to hire anyone (but it still might make sense to quit, build a startup, and then sell the startup to Google).
These things may be unconnected (and the article suggests that the AI researchers left Google well before Google started laying off employees), but I wonder how much the economical problems contributed to the new startups appearing.
I imagined that Google has tons of money and not many good ideas, so the best strategy for them is to buy everyone who seems capable of doing something useful. Even if they couldn’t use such people, at least they would deny them to a potential competition. I wasn’t paying attention lately, seems like the situation has changed dramatically. I kinda assumed that no matter what happens, Google is too rich to be significantly impacted.
So I wonder how much of the motivation for the AI researchers was “I am sitting on a potential gold mine” and how much of it was “Google is going to lay off many people soon, I better have a Plan B”.
Or maybe there is no connection, and the same thing would have happened also in a parallel timeline where Google has enough money to hire anyone (but it still might make sense to quit, build a startup, and then sell the startup to Google).