Google is reorganizing the leadership behind its artificial intelligence business, concentrating more of its decision-making in California while reshuffling some of the people who helped build its AI ambitions. The changes arrive as the company faces mounting pressure to close the gap with OpenAI and Anthropic in the race to develop the industry's most capable AI models.
Demis Hassabis is stepping back as CEO of Google DeepMind to become Alphabet's Chief Scientist, while Koray Kavukcuoglu takes over daily operations as SVP. Meanwhile, 27-year veteran Jeff Dean is leaving alongside Sanjay Ghemawat to launch an AI startup called Discovery Loop.
The reshuffle, announced August 5, sent Alphabet shares tumbling as much as 5% in a single day, even though Hassabis isn't leaving the company, just stepping back from day-to-day control.
Demis Hassabis steps back from daily leadership
After leading Google DeepMind through one of the most competitive periods in artificial intelligence, Hassabis will no longer oversee the organization's day-to-day operations.
According to reports, he will serve as Chairman of Google DeepMind and Alphabet's Chief Scientist, focusing on applying AI to scientific research and breakthrough discoveries. The role is expected to give him more time to pursue projects in areas such as drug discovery, fields where DeepMind has already demonstrated its research strengths, receiving a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for DeepMind's work on predicting protein structures.
The transition follows years of rapid change inside Google, co-founding the London-based AI lab DeepMind in 2010 before Google acquired the company in 2014 and then taking charge of Google’s AI work in 2023, not long after ChatGPT accelerated the industry's shift toward generative AI.
Koray Kavukcuoglu takes operational control
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