Google’s VP of labs, Salesforce’s former co-CEO to establish AI firm

SAN FRANCISCO: After working 18 years at Google, Clay Bavor, Google’s vice president of labs, has announced that he will leave the company next month and will build a new artificial intelligence (AI) company with Salesforce’s former co-CEO, Bret Taylor.

Bavor made the announcement in a post on his LinkedIn account.

“Bret and I have known each other since our early days at Google, and I have always admired his keen product sense and entrepreneurial spirit, his technical chops, and, above all, his character and integrity,” he said.

“We share an obsession with recent advances in AI, and we’re excited to build a new company to apply AI to solve some of the most important problems in business.”

He further mentioned that until his departure next month, he will be focusing on transitioning his teams and projects, and wrapping things up properly at Google.

“When I do depart next month, it will be with nothing but appreciation and gratitude.”

“I learned how to work at Google, and I saw up close what excellence looks like. I had the opportunity to work on a myriad of important products and technologies. And I learned so much along the way, from my successes and failures alike,” he added.

Bavor also said he had got the privilege of spending his days working alongside many “spectacularly smart, endlessly interesting, and unfailingly kind colleagues, many of whom I have come to count among my closest friends.”