Welcome Back to Where Tech Gets a Fun Upgrade! From AI antics to Silicon Valley drama, we’ve got the tech headlines you need—with a side of LOLs. Why settle for dry news when you can get the latest scoops with a bubble tea? Vanilla with Tapioca pearls or Chocolate with Oreo crumbs, what’s your order?
In the most expensive “please come back” text ever sent, Google has shelled out a jaw-dropping $2.7 billion to rehire Noam Shazeer the AI genius who stormed off three years ago after they refused to unleash his chatbot. Yeah, that’s right, Google ghosted his baby, “Meena,” and he took it personally.
So, what did Shazeer do? He pulled a full-blown Taylor Swift, took his talents elsewhere, and built his own AI startup Character.AI. And yes, how it blew up In just a couple of years, Character.AI became the toast of Silicon Valley, valued at $1 billion, with a flock of 20 million monthly active users. Tell me about showing your ex what they’re missing!
Grab your kilishi & Coffee, and let’s go down low!
The “Comeback Kid” Move
After years apart, Google and Shazeer’s will-they-won’t-they saga came to a shocking end last month when the tech giant paid up big time to license Character.AI’s tech and, more importantly, lure Shazeer (and co-creator Daniel De Freitas) back into the fold. Imagine a reality show but instead of roses, they’re handing out billions.
But wait, this wasn’t just your typical “take me back, I’ve changed” plea. No, no. Google went for a licensing deal instead of a full-blown acquisition. Why? Bureaucratic red tape, of course. Google was like, “Let’s not make it official, just give us the goods while we work things out.” Classic move, oooof.
Schmidt Said It First: The Man, The Myth, The Machine?
Shazeer’s return wasn’t just a flex to win back a genius. It’s personal. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been a Shazeer fanboy for years. In fact, Schmidt’s been quoted saying Shazeer could be the one to finally build an AI that operates with human-level intelligence. You read that right, Schmidt went full “prophet” mode back in 2015, saying, “If anyone’s gonna do it, it’s him.” No pressure, Shazeer.
In 2017, before his dramatic exit, Shazeer, along with De Freitas, cooked up Meena, a chatbot that could chat about anything under the sun. Shazeer was so hyped about it, he boldly predicted Meena would replace Google Search itself! Cue the record scratch: Google’s execs weren’t feeling the whole “AI apocalypse” thing. They thought, "Hmm, too risky," and hit the brakes.
A ‘Gemini’ Man
Now, Shazeer is back in the house, and he’s leading Google’s charge in the AI talent war. They’ve put him on their Gemini project, Google’s “we’re coming for you, ChatGPT” super AI model. After a few hiccups with “woke” image generation bugs (AI popes and diverse founding fathers, anyone?), Gemini’s back in the game—thanks to bug fixes, of course. Can Shazeer and his squad help Google take the crown? Only time (and maybe a few more billion-dollar deals) will tell.
The Talent Wars: Silicon Valley’s AI Hunger Games
The takeaway here? Silicon Valley’s AI battle is heating up faster than your laptop CPU after a marathon Netflix binge. OpenAI is throwing out eye-popping pay packages ($5-10 million in stock options, anyone?), while Meta’s over here offering a mere $1-2 million and wondering why they’re the stingy uncle at the tech holiday party.
Even Google co-founder Sergey Brin reportedly went full cupid, penning heartfelt notes to Shazeer like, “You complete us, please come back,” probably with a dash of code written in the margins.
Bottom line? If you’re a top-tier Tech genius, now’s the time to hold out for the kind of paydays that make Elon Musk blush. As for Shazeer? Well, he’s rolling back into Google on a private jet made of gold-plated code, and the AI world is watching.
By Christopher Shittu