Noam Shazeer | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1976 (age 49–50) |
| Education | Duke University, B.S. Mathematics and Computer Science (1998) |
| Known for | Transformer (deep learning) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
| Website | noamshazeer |
Noam Shazeer (born 1975 or 1976[1]) is an Americancomputer scientist andentrepreneur known for his contributions to the field ofartificial intelligence anddeep learning, particularly in the development oftransformer models andnatural language processing.
Noam Shazeer joined Google in 2000. One of his first major achievements was improving the spelling corrector of Google's search engine.[1] In 2017, Shazeer was one of the lead authors of the seminal paper "Attention Is All You Need",[2][3][1] which introduced thetransformer architecture.
At Google, Shazeer and his colleague Daniel de Freitas built a chatbot named Meena.[1] Following the refusal of Google to release the chatbot to the public, Shazeer and Freitas left the company in 2021 to foundCharacter.AI.[1][4]
In 2023 Time magazine chose Shazeer as one of the 100 most influential people in the AI world.[5]
In August 2024, it was reported that Shazeer would be returning to Google to co-lead theGemini AI project.[6] Shazeer was appointed as technical lead on Gemini, along withJeff Dean andOriol Vinyals.[7] It was part of a $2.7 billion deal for Google to license Character's technology.[1][8] Since he owns 30-40% of the company, it is estimated he netted $750 million-$1 billion.[8]
Shazeer said aboutartificial general intelligence that he doesn't "particularly care about AGI in the sense of wanting something that can do absolutely everything a person can do”.[9] When asked in 2023 if he is afraid that AGI will destroy the world, he said: "No. Not yet. [...] We’re going to work on it as the technology improves".[10]
When asked why dolarge language models work he answered: "My best guess is divine benevolence [...] Nobody really understands what’s going on. This is a very experimental science [...] It’s more like alchemy or whatever chemistry was in the Middle Ages.”[9]
Shazeer has stated, "I do not believe that humans have an attribute called gender... I do not believe that G-d puts people in the wrong bodies. I do not believe that it is okay to sterilize children."[11]
Shazeer is anorthodox Jew.[12][13][14] His grandparents escaped theHolocaust into the Soviet Union and later lived some time in Israel before emigrating to the USA.[12] His father, Dov Shazeer, was a math teacher who became an engineer[12] and his mother was a homemaker.[13] His sister was ordained as a rabbi byHebrew College.[12] Noam was born in Philadelphia, attended grade school at Cohen Hillel Academy in Marblehead, MA and attended Swampscott High School in Swampscott, MA. He won a gold medal with perfect score atInternational Mathematical Olympiad 1994 as a member of the USA team. He went on to study math and computer science atDuke University[12] in the years 1994-1998.[13] At Duke he was a recipient of the Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholarship[10] and, as part of the Duke math team, won prizes in several math tournaments.[12][15][16] He started studying in a graduate program inBerkeley but did not finish it.[12] He is a father of three and is married to Yael Shacham Shazeer, who also works at Google.[12] He lives inPalo Alto, California.[12]
