Google shakes up AI leadership as DeepMind chief shifts role

Alphabet, Google's parent company, announced a significant leadership change in its AI division on August 5. AI chief Demis Hassabis, a Nobel Prize recipient, will transition from being the Google DeepMind CEO to its chairman. He will take the newly created title of Alphabet's chief scientist, focusing on actively shaping the future of artificial general intelligence (AGI).

The unit's chief technology officer, Koray Kavukcuoglu, will assume day-to-day responsibilities, holding the title of senior vice president of the business unit and serving as Alphabet's chief AI architect. Several key leaders of Google's Gemini model, including veteran engineer Jeff Dean, departed the company to launch a startup called Discovery Loop, which will research breakthroughs in machine learning, science, and engineering.

Shares of Alphabet fell 4% after the news, as investor and industry concerns grew due to the unreleased Gemini model and Google's perceived lag behind rivals Anthropic and OpenAI, who recently hired Google AI staff.