AI staff from Google are now betting on their own startup.

Heard about Google Deepmind, right? The team building Google’s AI models. Three DeepMind researchers have decided to do their own thing. They are joining the ever-increasing number of AI researchers who are moving out of Google. Meanwhile, Google's dangling special stock deals to keep their AI whizzes from walking out.

What’s going on here?

AI staff from Google DeepMind are now betting on their own startup, fueled by millions in funding and big ideas.

What does this mean?

The key players here are David Ding, Charlie Nash, Yaroslav Ganin, and maybe Conor Durkan too. These guys were behind DeepMind's Lyria and Imagen 2, models for creating tunes and pics. The startup is called Uncharted Labs and has already bagged $8.5 million (eyeing total $10 million). Big names like Andreessen Horowitz might chip in too.

But why leave Google? Turns out, they got fed up with the slow pace and red tape. Google tried fixing things by merging their AI units, but that just ticked off the DeepMind crew even more. They felt like they lost their freedom to innovate. And it's not just them – other DeepMind and Google Brain talents are also jumping ship to start their own AI adventures.

Why should I care?

Mistral is one of the leading players in the foundational models space just after few months after its launch. The key ingredient, if you ask me? Researchers from Meta and Google Deepming were the ones building. Character AI, Eleven Labs and a dozen others are similar. Plus, the venture capital folks are pouring cash into AI so I guess, more of these startups are coming our way in 2024.