Big tech companies are actively competing for AI specialists and are very reluctant to let them help their competitors develop this area. In particular, Google’s AI company DeepMind may pay its specialists for another 6-12 months after they stop working for it.
Big tech companies are actively competing for AI specialists and are very reluctant to let them help their competitors develop this area. In particular, Google’s AI company DeepMind may pay its specialists for another 6-12 months after they stop working for it.
According to four former employees of Google DeepMind in the UK, some of the company’s employees are subject to noncompete agreements that prohibit them from working for competitors for 12 months after they leave Google. This is reported by TechCrunch with reference to Business Insider.
Google DeepMind allegedly sent some employees who signed such agreements on extended leave—they still receive a salary from DeepMind, but no longer work for it for the duration of the agreement.
The length of noncompete agreements depends on several factors, including a DeepMind employee’s seniority and how important their work is to the company, insiders said. Two former employees said six-month agreements are common among DeepMind employees, including for individual authors working on Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence models. They said there have been cases where senior researchers have been given year-long contracts.
«Our employment contracts are in line with market standards. Given the sensitive nature of our work, we use non-compete agreements selectively to protect our legitimate interests,» a Google spokesperson said.
As the AI field has boomed over the past two years with new startups and opportunities at big tech companies, some DeepMind employees feel their lengthy noncompete agreements are limiting their mobility.
«Who will want to hire you in a year?» said one former DeepMind employee.
In the UK, where DeepMind is headquartered, non-compete agreements can be enforced if they are deemed reasonable to protect the employer’s legitimate business interests.
This could be a serious problem for specialists at one of the world’s leading AI labs who are looking for career opportunities elsewhere during a boom in the industry, especially as some of DeepMind’s competitors, such as OpenAI and Microsoft, expand their UK offices and try to lure away employees.
Earlier this month, researchers at Google DeepMind released a new white paper explaining how to safely develop artificial general intelligence (AGI). Despite skeptics' predictions, they believe that AI of this level could be coming relatively soon, and they look at four ways it could harm humanity.
