Without further ado — I’m leaving Google. June 25 will be my last day, after just over six years with the company.

It’s with genuinely mixed feelings. I deeply believe Google is positioned to win, and my soon-to-be-former colleagues are some of the most talented, passionate people I’ve ever worked with.

But after six years I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been getting restless — doubly so now, as AI hits its stride and I keep watching people launch startup after startup and thinking, well, why not me?

My favorite joke about AI goes something like this:

What would you do in a hard-takeoff scenario?

Well, whatever you’re doing right now — that’s what you’re doing, in a hard-takeoff scenario.

And so: onwards.

A lot of my friends left Google after we shut down Stadia, and I told them at that time that I would likely stay until I had something for my time that I could talk about (my biggest wins in that time, things that I built my reputation upon, are still secret to this day).

But after Stadia, I got pulled into AI DevRel and that gave me more chances than most people get:

  • Train the Trainer: Gemma reaching thousands through our Google Developer Experts;
  • supporting Dr. Okazaki’s team at Institute of Science Tokyo on Gemma-2-Llama Swallow;
  • being part of the Gemma 3 and Gemma 4 launches;
  • speaking at Weights & Biases Fully Connected in Tokyo two years running;
  • and probably most special to me, getting to speak at Game Developers Conference for the first time ever in 2025.

I’m not sure yet whether the next thing is a job, a startup, or both — if you want to chat, holler at me on LinkedIn. It’s never been a more exciting time to be in technology.

Special thanks to:

  • Ju-yeong Ji: we saw a lot together, didn’t we partner! I’ll miss presenting to big crowds and doing podcasts with you.
  • Sherry Xu: thanks for all the speaking opportunities!
  • Ian Ballantyne: thanks for always having such a supportive ear.
  • Gus Martins: your passion for open models and support for non-English languages was a real inspiration!
  • Omar Sanseviero: it was deeply special getting to learn from the Chief LLaMA Officer himself — thanks for everything.
  • Jeanine Banks: thanks for taking a chance on me and Ju-yeong, and scooping us up into AI DevRel in the first place!

And with that, until next time!