Google pays $2.7 billion to bring back an old employee leading to this big debate on overspending on AI

Noam Shazeer, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, left Google in 2021 after clashing with management over the release of a powerful chatbot he co-developed. However, in a surprising turn of events, Google has brought him back with a massive deal. According to a report in WSJ, Google paid a staggering $2.7 billion to acquire Shazeer’s company, Character.AI.