Google’s AI Talent War: Paying Ex-Employees to Stay Away From Rivals
Thanks to a trick, Google Deepmind continues to pay some former employees their full salary – on the condition that they do not work for competitors for a year. This aggressive strategy in the fight for AI talent causes resentment in the industry.
Paid time -out instead of competing
Google Deepmind uses unusual measures to protect its AI expertise. The AI department of the tech giant pays some former employees in Great Britain for a full year for a full year-without having to work or should be said better. The only condition is that you are not allowed to hire with competitors such as Openaai or Microsoft during this time.
This practice, known as “Extended Garden Leave” (extended exemption), is made possible by so -called competition ban in the employment contracts. Depending on the service and the importance of the work, the competition bans are different. While six months are standard for many Deepmind employees, important developers of the Gemini-ACI models are imposed, some of the blocking times of up to one year are imposed.
This long waiting time can be problematic in the fast-moving AI industry. “Whoever intends to set yourself in a year for a start? That is an eternity in the AI world,” quoted Business Insider a former deepmind employee.
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prohibited most of such competition bans last year, and they are generally not enforceable in California. In the UK, where Deepmind’s headquarters are located, other rules apply. As Business Insider writes, this leads to growing resentment among those affected. Some employees even consider moving to California just to escape these clauses.
The frustration recently became public when Nando de Freitas, AI Vice President at Microsoft and former Deepmind director, wrote on X: “Every week, one of you desperately turns to me to ask how to escape his notice periods and competition bans.” He described the practice as “abuse of power” and advised Deepmind employees not to sign such contracts.
AI talent as a short good
Google’s aggressive strategy shows how valuable the AI expertise has become. “It seems to be in my career for the first time that there is this insane race like a race into space,” said a former Google employee.
“People really have the feeling that six months or a year ahead could make the decisive difference.” Google itself defends the practice: “Our employment contracts correspond to the market standards. In view of the sensitive nature of our work, we use competition bans selectively to protect our legitimate interests,” said a company spokesman.
