A look at the challenges facing incoming Google DeepMind head Koray Kavukcuoglu, who joined DeepMind in 2012 and will oversee Gemini and frontier AI research (Kai Nicol-Schwarz/CNBC)

Koray Kavukcuoglu has taken over as the head of Google DeepMind, a role that comes with significant challenges. He joined DeepMind in 2012 and will oversee Gemini and frontier AI research. According to CNBC, Kavukcuoglu faces intense pressure to close the AI performance gap with OpenAI and Anthropic.

Google's Gemini app has reached a major milestone, surpassing 1 billion monthly active users. This achievement was announced by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who described Gemini as one of the company's fastest-growing products. According to the Daily Times, Business Recorder, Economic Times Tech, and Times of India, Gemini is the 14th Google product to reach 1 billion users.

The growth of Gemini comes amid a major overhaul of Google's AI division. Demis Hassabis, who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry, recently stepped back from day-to-day management of Google DeepMind. Several leading researchers have also left, including Jeff Dean, a central figure in the group's engineering efforts. The company's new flagship model, Gemini 3.5 Pro, initially promised for June, still has not been released.

Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, Daily Times, Business Recorder, Economic Times Tech, Times of India — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.