Noam Shazeer, a 48-year-old engineer regarded as 'AI genius', joined Google in 2000. A Duke University graduate, Shazeer co-authored a paper on a computer system that could reliably predict the next word in a sequence when prompted by humans. He quit Google in 2021 and co-founded the startup Character.AI. Google recently spent over ₹22,625 crore to rehire Shazeer, WSJ reported.