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François Chollet, creator of Keras, leaves Google to start new company

Chollet who joined Google in 2015 is today among the most renowned figures in AI.

In his long post, Francois Chollet said that he would continue to stay deeply involved with the Keras project. (Express Image/LinkedIn)

The list of high-profile exits from the AI world seems to be growing. French software engineer, François Chollet, who has served Google for almost a decade is among one of the most recognisable names in the AI community. Chollet is the latest to step down from his post at the Alphabet-owned company.

Chollet took to his X account to share that he was leaving Google to start a new company with a friend. However, he did not divulge any details about his upcoming venture. Chollet is credited for creating Keras, a platform that simplifies the complexities of deep neural networks. Chollet, when he was an engineer with Google, designed Keras for speed and flexibility. In simple words, Keras is a framework that is used for research and development within deep learning.

According to Google, Keras, with over two million users, has become a cornerstone of AI development. From Waymo autonomous cars to YouTube and Netflix, Keras powers an array of applications at Google and other tech companies.

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On November 14, Chollet retweeted a post by Google that lauded Keras, terming it as a driver of AI innovation. The Google handle asserted that as Chollet was beginning a new chapter, it would continue to remain committed to Keras and open-source AI.

In his retweet, Chollet said that he would stay deeply involved with the Keras project from the outside. “You’ll still find me active on the GitHub repo! At Google, I’m leaving the project in excellent hands: Jeff Carpenter is taking over as team lead for Keras, and I couldn’t have hoped for a better successor. I have full confidence in Jeff and the incredibly talented Keras team to continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in deep learning,” he wrote. Chollet said that it has been an honour to work with the team and that shipping multi-backend Keras 3 last year has been the highlight of his career.

Talking about Keras, Chollet said that it went from a small library used by a few thousand enthusiasts to a state-of-the-art framework used by over two million developers. “Today, Keras powers ML solutions in countless companies and touches the lives of people everywhere. You’re constantly interacting with Keras models — it powers your recommendations on YouTube, Netflix, and Spotify, the fraud-filtering of your credit card transactions, and the Waymo cars that drive you around San Francisco,” Chollet wrote.

Some personal news — I’m leaving Google to go start a new company with a friend. More to be announced soon!

I will stay deeply involved with the Keras project from the outside — you’ll still find me active on the GitHub repo! At Google, I’m leaving the project in excellent… https://t.co/h0O2SeAm61

— François Chollet (@fchollet) November 14, 2024

On the other hand, Google For Developers, in its blog said that Chollet was embarking on a new chapter outside Google. “While we are sad to see him go, we are incredibly proud of his immense contributions and excited to see what he accomplishes next,” the blog read.

Who is François Chollet?

Chollet is a French software engineer and AI researcher. His research focuses primarily on computer vision, a domain that uses machine learning for formal reasoning and abstraction. Chollet, who graduated with a Master of Engineering from ENSTA Paris began working with Google in 2015. He won the Global Swiss AI award in 2021 and was named among TIME’s list of 100 most influential people in AI in 2024.

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artificial intelligence