>In a big move, Character.AI co-founder and CEO Noam Shazeer [...]

It's like those rich guy/poor guy jokes.

Poor guy leaves his job, tries bootstrap its own company and fails, comes back to its old job. "What a loser".

Rich guy leaves his job, gets 150M to start a company in a blue ocean with a significant competitive advantage over 99.99% of humans alive. Still manages to fail and comes back to its old job. "What a bold move!"