Demis Hassabis no longer CEO at Google DeepMind, Google AI boss Jeff Dean is leaving company

Google has announced a bunch of changes within Google DeepMind. Chief scientist Jeff Dean is leaving Google after 27 years while DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis is stepping aside. Here is all you need to know.

In Short

• Google announces major reshuffle at DeepMind
• Chief scientist Jeff Dean departs to start Developer Loop
• Demis Hassabis to step down as DeepMind CEO

Google has just had a major reshuffle in its AI arm, DeepMind. Demis Hassabis is stepping down from his role as DeepMind CEO, while chief scientist Jeff Dean is leaving Google after 27 years to start an independent company.

As part of the changes, Demis Hassabis will become chair of Google’s AI unit and the chief scientist of Google’s parent company Alphabet. Meanwhile, DeepMind’s chief technology officer, Koray Kavukcuoglu, will become a senior vice-president and report directly to Sundar Pichai.

These changes come at a time when Google is facing tough competition from OpenAI and Anthropic in the AI race. Google has already lost some big names in the AI talent wars, including Nobel Prize winner John Jumper who recently joined Anthropic. As per reports, this has taken a hit on employee morale.

The company has also delayed the release of Gemini 3.5 Pro after it reportedly failed to meet internal goals. Following the announcement Alphabet shares fell about 4 per cent.

What is happening at Google DeepMind?

In a note to staff, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Google had made strong progress across its AI stack and said its products were bringing AI to more people than any other company.

Pichai added that the company had to move faster but there was also a need to work on AGI. "We have to accelerate all this work and stay focused on the AI frontier," Pichai wrote. "At the same time, there's never been a more important moment to shape the future of AGI and science."

AGI refers to artificial general intelligence, a stage where AI can start to think like humans.

With these changes, Demis Hassabis is expected to focus on AGI and the way it benefits humanity. "It's critical that we collectively get the next steps right to ensure this all goes well for humanity and we usher in an incredible new age of discovery and wonder," Demis wrote in his message to DeepMind employees. "With this backdrop, I've decided that now is the right time for me to hand over my day-to-day operational responsibilities at Google DeepMind, so that I have the time and space to focus on the big picture and help influence what is to come to the best of my ability."

In his new role, Hassabis will continue to work on strategic and global AGI matters with Pichai and will also remain chief executive of Isomorphic Labs, Alphabet's AI drug discovery spin-off. His work on AlphaFold, alongside John Jumper, won the 2024 Nobel Prize for predicting the 3D structures of proteins.

Jeff Dean is leaving Google

Google’s chief scientist Jeff Dean is leaving the company after 27 years. During Dean's time at Google, he says, the company expanded "from 25 people to over 190,000." He is starting Discovery Loop, an independent public benefit corporation in which Google will be an investor and cloud provider. He is being joined by Google senior fellow Sanjay Ghemawat, DeepMind vice-president Oriol Vinyals and Google Brain co-founder Quoc Le. The departure of these four key staff members is expected to be a big blow for Google.

According to Dean, Discovery Loop wants to “automate machine learning, science, and engineering to accelerate discoveries and progress.” According to reports, Pichai held multiple meetings to persuade the group to stay, but they ultimately chose what Oriol Vinyals described as the "fun" and "freedom" of building a start-up.

Starting a public benefit corporation will also likely allow the four founders to keep working without having to worry about profits. "We might make decisions that are not necessarily in the company's purist financial interests," Dean told the New York Times.

Google DeepMind gets a new boss

Koray Kavukcuoglu will take charge of Google DeepMind's next phase, with oversight of Gemini model development, frontier AI research, and the Gemini app and developer teams.

"For Google DeepMind, our mission to build AI responsibly to benefit humanity does not change. My primary focus is ensuring we have the clearest possible path to delivering on our ambitious Gemini roadmap as we progress toward AGI,” Koray said. “In today's rapidly evolving landscape, we must operate with absolute intention and velocity."

Koray Kavukcuoglu has worked with Demis Hassabis for over 13 years. Following the changes, Demis said that Gemini models were already in good hands with Koray at the helm.

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