Google is allegedly paying some AI workers to do nothing for a yr slightly than be a part of rivals

Retaining high AI expertise is hard amid cutthroat competitors between Google, OpenAI, and different heavyweights.

Google’s AI division, DeepMind, has resorted to utilizing “aggressive” noncompete agreements for some AI workers within the U.Ok. that bar them from working for opponents for as much as a yr, Enterprise Insider reviews.

Some are paid throughout this time, in what quantities to a prolonged stretch of PTO. However the follow could make researchers really feel disregarded of the fast tempo of AI progress, reported BI.

Within the U.S., the FTC banned most noncompetes final yr, however that doesn’t apply to DeepMind’s London headquarters.

Final month, the VP of AI at Microsoft posted on X about how DeepMind workers are reaching out to him “in despair” over the problem of escaping their noncompete clauses:

Google didn’t reply to a request for remark from TechCrunch however instructed BI it makes use of noncompetes “selectively.”