OpenAI hires DeepMind AI pioneer and former White House policy official
9 reported1 unconfirmed
OpenAI is adding two prominent figures to its team as it prepares for its initial public offering, according to a TechCrunch report. The company has hired Noam Shazeer, a Google DeepMind AI legend and co-author of the foundational 2017 paper “Attention Is All You Need,” and Dean Ball, a former White House AI policy official. Shazeer announced his departure from Google on Wednesday, where he had worked since 2000 except for a three-year period when he co-founded Character AI. Ball announced on X on Thursday that he will join OpenAI on July 6 as leader of a new team called Strategic Futures, reporting to Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon. The team will focus on frontier AI policy, catastrophic risk, labor market impact, and the relationship between AI labs and governments. Ball’s move comes as Anthropic faces an export control ban ordered by President Donald Trump on its latest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5.
What’s reported
OpenAI is hiring Noam Shazeer, a Google DeepMind AI legend and co-lead at Gemini, and Dean Ball, a former Trump White House AI policy official.
Shazeer announced his departure from Google on Wednesday; he had been at Google since 2000, leaving only for three years to co-found Character AI.
Google rehired Shazeer two years ago in a $2.7 billion deal that gave the tech giant access to Character AI’s technology.
Shazeer co-authored the 2017 paper “Attention Is All You Need,” which introduced the Transformer architecture.
According to The Information, Shazeer voiced opinions on internal messaging boards about transgender identity and Israel’s war in Gaza that resulted in management deleting his posts.
Ball had a brief stint last year in the White House, where he helped publish America’s AI Action Plan before stepping down to rejoin the Foundation for American Innovation as a senior fellow.
Ball wrote on X on Thursday that he will join OpenAI on July 6 as leader of a new team called Strategic Futures, reporting to Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon.
The Strategic Futures team will focus on catastrophic risk, recursive self-improvement, labor market impact, and the relationship between frontier labs, governments, and society.
Late last week, President Donald Trump ordered an export control ban on Anthropic’s latest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, forcing the models to be taken down.
Open questions
Whether the controversies around Shazeer’s past internal posts will follow him to OpenAI.
Key figures
Noam Shazeer: Google DeepMind AI legend, co-lead at Gemini, founder of Character AI, co-author of “Attention Is All You Need”
Dean Ball: Former Trump White House AI policy official, incoming leader of OpenAI’s Strategic Futures team
Jason Kwon: OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer
President Donald Trump: Ordered export control ban on Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models
Sources: TechCrunch
