Jon Russell via flickr
The primary reason for the payment is believed to be the return of Character.AI's former employee and co-founder Noam Shazeer, who, along with the startup's second founder Daniel De Freitas and several other experts, agreed to join Google.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google's AI experts are uncertain about the plans for Character.AI's licensed technology.
As stated by a source from the newspaper, Shazeer received hundreds of millions of dollars for a share in Character.AI as a component of the August agreement. Typically, founders receive such significant amounts when they sell the entire company or make it publicly traded.
The startup accepted the deal during a challenging period, according to the publication. Character.AI was facing financial difficulties because of expensive development costs without sufficient revenue sources.
Shazeer has recently been appointed as the vice president at Google and is one of the three leaders in charge of developing a new edition of its most advanced AI technology, Gemini.
source: wsj.com
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google's AI experts are uncertain about the plans for Character.AI's licensed technology.
As stated by a source from the newspaper, Shazeer received hundreds of millions of dollars for a share in Character.AI as a component of the August agreement. Typically, founders receive such significant amounts when they sell the entire company or make it publicly traded.
The startup accepted the deal during a challenging period, according to the publication. Character.AI was facing financial difficulties because of expensive development costs without sufficient revenue sources.
Shazeer has recently been appointed as the vice president at Google and is one of the three leaders in charge of developing a new edition of its most advanced AI technology, Gemini.
source: wsj.com