Once upon a time (okay, like three years ago), Canadian AI startup Cohere had investors dreaming big. Backed with roughly $1 billion and led by Aidan Gomez — the whiz kid who co-wrote a legendary LLM paper at just 20 while interning at Google — the company was hyped as a serious rival to OpenAI and Anthropic.
Fast forward to today and… well, the hype has cooled. Cohere’s AI models have lagged behind the cutting edge, and while its rivals scaled like SpaceX rockets, Cohere’s growth has been more… regional train.
Enter Joelle Pineau — Meta’s former VP of AI Research and the brains behind some of its most ambitious projects (hello, LLaMA models). She’s stepping in as Cohere’s brand-new Chief AI Officer, overseeing research, product, and policy in a bid to level up the company’s tech and talent game.
Pineau isn’t just another hire. She’s an AI heavyweight, a McGill professor, and a Canadian native — so yes, there’s a bit of “home team advantage” here. And she’s not shy about where she stands: while others chase AGI like it’s the next gold rush, she’s excited about practical AI that solves real-world problems — especially for enterprises and government agencies obsessed with privacy and security.
Cohere’s latest baby? North — a private, deploy-on-your-own-servers AI agent platform designed for banks, federal agencies, and anyone allergic to handing their data to Big Tech. Pineau wants to double down on this, figuring out how AI agents can work securely, privately, and (bonus points) actually talk to each other in the real world.
It’s not all smooth sailing. Cohere just lost its VP of AI Research, and hiring top-tier AI talent is harder than convincing Netflix to stop cancelling good shows. But Pineau’s betting that agility, focus, and a strong team dynamic can beat endless billions.
Because in the AI race, speed matters — but knowing exactly where you’re running matters more.
About the Author
