Demis Hassabis stepping down as Google DeepMind CEO may weaken the UK tech scene, marking an end for Hassabis' effort to keep his native UK as an AI stronghold (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg)
For years, Demis Hassabis was the only executive to oversee a US technology giant's artificial intelligence development from outside the country.
Demis Hassabis is stepping down as CEO of Google DeepMind. He will become chairman of the unit and chief scientist for parent company Alphabet. This change may weaken the UK tech scene, as Hassabis had been working to keep his native UK as an AI stronghold. For years, he was the only executive to oversee a US technology giant's artificial intelligence development from outside the country.
Koray Kavukcuoglu, DeepMind's CTO, will take over as senior vice president of the division, reporting directly to CEO Sundar Pichai. According to Ventureburn, Jeff Dean, Google's chief scientist, is leaving to start a new company with three other senior Google AI colleagues.
The leadership change comes as Google faces pressure from rivals, with competitors OpenAI and Anthropic releasing new models that push the boundaries of what AI can do. Google's Gemini 3.5 Pro is reportedly months behind schedule. Several top researchers have also left the company, including Gemini's co-lead.
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