Google does not want its artificial intelligence (AI) talent in the UK to join its competitors, such as Microsoft and OpenAI. So what is it doing? Its DeepMind division is paying a year’s salary to its AI software engineers, to just not work for a whole year. These employees are being put on “extended garden leave” as per their non-compete agreement, after being hired.
This clause does not allow employees to join a competitor for a specific time period after leaving their organisation. Such an agreement protects the interests of the company, although the employees may feel it is limiting their mobility.
It is reported that most DeepMind employees, including individual contributors and those associated with Gemini, are on a six-month non-compete agreement.
How long these non-compete agreements are depends on how senior the employee is and how critical their contribution is to DeepMind’s work.
While we may think that such a time off work may be good for employees, those working in the AI space feel that it is too long a time. After all, the AI landscape is evolving so rapidly. Every minute counts!
