Google co-founder comes back to company to bolster its AI efforts

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced the exit of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin back in 2019. While the two have taken a step back, they retained full control due to their voting power. Although both have mostly taken a hands-off approach to running the conglomerate since then, Brin has reportedly decided to come back to assist with advancing the company’s AI efforts.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, people close to the matter say that Brin is now showing up to the Google offices three to four times a week. This doesn’t appear to be a recent development either, as Brin apparently started increasing his presence as hype was building around ChatGPT last year.

If you remember, the sudden rise of ChatGPT had Google’s executives hitting the panic button last year. Reports stated that the executives saw the technology as a major threat to Google’s Search business. Current CEO Sunder Pichai even began pulling staff off of existing projects to focus on building AI products.

As for what Brin is doing, it seems he is using his role to support the team working on Gemini — Google’s next-generation AI model that supposedly surpasses other AI models currently available on the market. Specifically, he’s mostly helping out with the hiring process, which is crucial after the company has lost a number of researchers in the area.

With Brin’s return, an eye turns to Pichai and how he feels about the co-founder lending a hand. According to the publication, not only is Pichai not concerned about Brin’s involvement, but he’s also welcoming and encouraging it.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Google planned to unveil over 20 AI products this year. Some of those products have now reached our hands, like Android’s wallpaper maker for Pixel phones.