Google DeepMind has a weapon in the AI talent wars: aggressive noncompete rules
Noncompete agreements are common in the tech industry, including at companies like Google DeepMind. These agreements typically prevent employees from working for a competitor for a certain period after leaving their current company. The purpose of noncompete agreements is to protect a company's intellectual property and trade secrets. Employees subject to such agreements may have restrictions on where they can work after leaving their current employer. Noncompete agreements can sometimes be a point of contention for employees seeking new job opportunities.
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis
Google DeepMind uses noncompetes that last as long as a year to stop employees from going to rivals. A former DeepMind director commented publicly about the issue last week. Several factors, including an employee's seniority and work focus, affect the noncompete length. The battle for AI talent is so hot that Google would rather give some employees a paid one-year vacation than let them work for a competitor.
Noncompete Agreements at Google DeepMind
Some Google DeepMind staff in the UK are subject to noncompete agreements that prevent them from working for a competitor for up to 12 months after they finish work at Google, according to four former employees with direct knowledge of the matter who asked to remain anonymous because they were not permitted to share these details with the press. Aggressive noncompetes are one tool tech companies wield to retain a competitive edge in the AI wars, which show no sign of slowing down as companies launch new bleeding-edge models and products at a rapid clip.
When an employee signs one, they agree not to work for a competing company for a certain period of time. Google DeepMind has put some employees with a noncompete on extended garden leave. These employees are still paid by DeepMind but no longer work for it for the duration of the noncompete agreement. Several factors, including a DeepMind employee's seniority and how critical their work is to the company, determine the length of noncompete clauses, those people said. Two of the former staffers said six-month noncompetes are common among DeepMind employees, including for individual contributors working on Google's Gemini AI models. There have been cases where more senior researchers have received yearlong stipulations, they said.
"Our employment contracts are in line with market standards," a Google spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement. "Given the sensitive nature of our work, we use noncompetes selectively to protect our legitimate interests."
Challenges and Perspectives
As the AI field has blossomed in the past two years with new startups and opportunities at heavyweight tech companies, some DeepMind employees feel their lengthy noncompetes have restricted their movement. One former DeepMind employee said, "Who wants to sign you for starting in a year? That's forever in AI." Noncompete laws in the US vary by state, though noncompete clauses are unenforceable in California, where Google and several other tech giants are headquartered. New legislation introduced in 2023 expanded California law to ban the enforcement of noncompetes entered into outside the state.
In the UK, where DeepMind's headquarters is located, noncompetes are enforceable if they are deemed reasonable to protect the employer's legitimate business interests. It can pose a serious challenge to some talent at one of the world's leading AI labs seeking career opportunities elsewhere during a boom period for the industry, particularly as some of DeepMind's competitors, such as OpenAI and Microsoft, grow their UK offices and try to poach staff.
One former DeepMind employee said they were aware of colleagues who considered leaving London for jobs in California just to get out of the noncompete.
Public Discussion and Concerns
The issue of noncompetes spilled into the public domain last week when Nando de Freitas, Microsoft AI vice president and former DeepMind director, posted a message to DeepMind employees. He advised employees unhappy about the terms to reach out to DeepMind leaders, including CTO Koray Kavukcuoglu and senior research director Douglas Eck, whom de Freitas said are "against it."
He added, "Above all don't sign these contracts. No American corporation should have that much power, especially in Europe. It's abuse of power, which does not justify any end."
In the past, the idea of receiving full compensation without working for several months didn't seem so bad to some staff, though in the red-hot fight for talent now happening in the AI field, it risks becoming a problem. A former Google employee said the noncompetes prevalent in the generative AI boom are a stark contrast to those seen in the tech industry in the previous decade.
The former employee also drew parallels between noncompetes in AI and those seen in hedge funds, where clauses have proven notoriously aggressive. "AI is interesting. It seems to be the first time in my career that you have this insane race, like a space race," the former employee said. "People really feel like to be six months ahead, a year ahead, could make all the difference."