Sergey Brin returns to Google to work on secret AI project Gemini

Google cofounder Sergey Brin is reportedly back at Google headquarters and is working on the company’s highly ambitious AI project called Gemini. Know the details.

Sergey Brin, one of the cofounders of Google is back from his retirement to work on the company’s general-purpose AI model Gemini. (AFP)

It has been four years since Sergey Brin, one of the cofounders of Google stepped down from his position as the president of its parent company Alphabet. But according to reports, his retirement has been cut short as he is now back at the Google office in Mountain View, California. And the same reports suggest that he is working on the company's one of the most ambitious projects of recent times — a general-purpose AI platform which is internally called Gemini.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the billionaire has been seen visiting the Google headquarters three to four days a week. The report also asserts that Brin is working to develop the company's next large artificial intelligence.

Citing anonymous sources, the report also highlighted that the Google cofounder was attending meetings even last year, but the frequency of them has increased in the last few months. It is believed that the company is near a pivotal moment where it can make a breakthrough with a general-purpose AI model, that can rival OpenAI's GPT-4.

The same sources also revealed that Demis Hassabis, the Google executive heading project Gemini has told other employees that the product can be deployed later in 2023.

Google's Gemini AI

Not much is known about Google's secret AI project as things are being kept tightly under wraps, however, the report mentions that Gemini will be a foundational model that powers other AI models. To draw a comparison, it is like the GPT model, that powers ChatGPT.

A general-purpose AI can help build different types of AI products that can work in a wide range of fields with the aim to automate tasks. For example, Google's PaLM 2 is a general-purpose AI model that has developed a host of tools such as MusicLM, NotebookLM, and more. It is not known how it differs from PaLM 2 and the new capabilities it will add to Google's AI arsenal.

This is why Brin joining the project is being seen as an important moment, as he can guide the company in the right direction. WSJ sources said that CEO Sundar Pichai is also excited about the cofounder's involvement in the project and has encouraged his contributions.