Google has made headlines by paying $2.7 billion to bring back Noam Shazeer, a well-known expert in artificial intelligence (AI). Shazeer, 48, left Google in 2021 to start his own company, Character.AI, which quickly became popular.

Shazeer worked at Google since 2000 but left after the company said no to releasing a chatbot he created with his colleague, Daniel De Freitas. After leaving, they founded Character.AI, which became valued at $1 billion last year.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Google’s big payment not only brings Shazeer back but also allows the company to use Character.AI’s technology right away. This means they won’t have to wait for government approvals. Many Google employees see Shazeer’s return as a big win for the company’s future in AI.

Industry leaders, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, have praised Shazeer’s skills. Schmidt once said, “If there’s anyone who can build an AI model that thinks like a human, it’s him.”

Before leaving, Shazeer created a chatbot called Meena, which he believed could eventually replace Google’s search engine. However, Google was worried about safety and fairness, so they chose not to release it.

Now back at Google, Shazeer will lead the development of Gemini, a new AI model that aims to compete with other popular models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This move shows that Google is serious about being a leader in AI technology.