By TOI TECH DESK

Copyright indiatimes

With the growing concerns over an escalating talent war in the artificial intelligence segment, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has publicly addresses the issue of employee poaching, specifically from Google DeepMind, the company’s AI research division. As reported by Business Insider, speaking at Alphabet’s Q2 earnings call, Pichai acknowledged the growing competition from rivals like Microsoft, Meta and also from emerging players such as OpenAI. All of these companies have aggressively recruited AI experts and that to with multimillion-dollar compensation packages.“I do know individual cases can make headlines,” Pichai said, referring to recent high-profile departures. “But when we look at numbers deeply, I think we are doing well through this moment.”Retention metrics “Healthy,” says PichaiAs reported by Business Insider, Google CEO remains confident of Google’s internal metrics despite the ongoing talent drain. “We continue to look at both our retention metrics, as well as the new talent coming in, and both are healthy,” he stated. Google declined to share specific figures when asked by Business Insider.Pichai’s comments come at a time when Meta has launched its ‘superintelligence’ division and has already poached many former Google employees including Pei Sun, the researcher who contributed to Google’s Gemini AI assistant and Waymo self-driving technology.The cost of staying competitiveAccording to Business Insider, analysts such as Bernstein’s Mark Shmulik, raised concerns about the increasing costs of staying ahead on the race of AI innovation. A recent report by SignalFire revealed that researchers are 11 times more likely to leave Google for Anthropic than the reverse — a stark indicator of shifting industry dynamics.Pichai stressed on the fact that retaining the top talent is not all about offering huge compensation packages. “Access to compute is super important,” he said, referencing Google’s investment in cutting-edge chips and infrastructure. “Researchers want to be at the frontier driving progress… the mission and how state-of-the-art the work is matters.”