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Aidan Gomez, a pivotal figure in the development of the transformer at Google Brain, is now steering the AI startup Cohere towards new horizons. While interning at Google Brain in 2017, Gomez co-authored the groundbreaking paper “Attention Is All You Need,” which laid the foundation for the generative artificial intelligence boom. Reflecting on the rapid advancements in AI, Gomez remarked, “The models are doing stuff that I personally thought maybe I’d see at the end of my career, maybe in like 40 years.”
After leaving Google in 2021, Gomez co-founded Cohere alongside Ivan Zhang and Nick Frosst. Backed by Nvidia and valued at $5 billion, Cohere focuses on developing generative AI models for businesses. Unlike consumer-facing products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Cohere’s models are designed to enhance business productivity and efficiency.
“We’re having research come out of MIT and Harvard showing the productivity gains,” Gomez explained. “You can just quantitatively measure it. You sit a knowledge worker down next to one of these models. You train them on how to use it, how to make it useful for them. They have to learn how to use the technology, but once they do, you see productivity lifts that are like 40%.”
In June 2023, Cohere secured $270 million in funding at a $2.2 billion valuation from investors including Salesforce and Oracle. The company, which started with a team of just five, now boasts around 400 employees and is rapidly expanding its sales force.
One notable success story for Cohere involves an insurance company that leveraged AI to speed up its quoting process for mining and pipeline firm projects. By accelerating the work of actuaries, the company was able to submit faster quotes and secure more contracts. “I never thought that an insurance company for natural resource projects would be adopting large language models,” Gomez said. “But they are.”
As Cohere continues to grow and innovate, Gomez envisions a future where AI is an integral part of business operations, driving significant productivity and profitability gains across various industries.