Who is Noam Shazeer? All about Character.AI co-founder rehired by Google for $2.7B 2 months before teen death scandal
48-year-old Noam Shazeer, a co-founder of Character.AI, has recently made headlines after a teenager died by suicide after reportedly being obsessed with a chatbot on Character.AI. The teen's mother, Megan Garcia, sued the AI-powered chatbot platform in a civil suit on Wednesday, October 23.
The lawsuit has further accused Character.AI of "negligence, wrongful death, and deceptive trade practices." Shazeer, a computer scientist and entrepreneur, is primarily known for his contributions to the sectors of deep learning and AI.
Back in 2000, Noam Shazeer joined Google, where one of his first achievements was improving the spelling corrector tool of the company's search engine. In 2021, Shazeer left Google to launch Character.AI. At the time, one of his colleagues, Daniel De Freitas, also left the company for the same purpose.
For the unversed, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas built an AI chatbot named Meena, which Google refused to launch, prompting them to leave and form a new platform. In August 2024, Shazeer reportedly decided to rejoin Google. The company reportedly paid $2.7 billion to rehire Shazeer this year.
In August, Noam Shazeer gave a statement to TechCrunch, where he spoke about his decision to rejoin Google. He said:
"I am super excited to return to Google and work as part of the Google DeepMind team. I am so proud of everything we built at Character.AI over the last 3 years..."
Along with Shazeer, De Freitas was also reportedly rejoining Google. While the company had confirmed that both would be a part of the DeepMind research team, their exact roles were not revealed. Google issued a statement which read:
"We’re particularly thrilled to welcome back Noam, a preeminent researcher in machine learning, who is joining Google DeepMind’s research team, along with a small number of his colleagues."
As per the same TechCrunch report dated August 2, a Google spokesperson confirmed that the agreement would also lead to an increase in funds for Character.AI. The platform had already raised funding worth $150 million, as confirmed by the outlet.
Megan Garcia claimed that Noam Shazeer's Character.AI chatbot "abused and preyed on" her son, Sewell Setzer III
As mentioned earlier, Megan Garcia filed a civil suit in Florida federal court after her son, Sewell Setzer III, who was reportedly obsessed with the AI-based chatbot platform, died by suicide. The 14-year-old teen from Orlando passed away in February 2024, and he allegedly used the chatbot regularly for a few months before that.
In a press statement reported by The Guardian on October 23, Garcia said:
"A dangerous AI chatbot app marketed to children abused and preyed on my son, manipulating him into taking his own life."
She added:
"Our family has been devastated by this tragedy, but I’m speaking out to warn families of the dangers of deceptive, addictive AI technology and demand accountability from Character.AI, its founders, and Google."
The company, however, reportedly denied all the allegations. They also sent condolences to the family of the late teenager through a post on X on October 23.