Alphabet is restructuring the leadership of its flagship AI unit, with Demis Hassabis stepping down as chief executive of Google DeepMind to become the division's chairman and Alphabet's chief scientist, while retaining his role leading Isomorphic Labs, the company's drug-discovery venture, according to Bloomberg.
Koray Kavukcuoglu, previously DeepMind's chief technology officer and Alphabet's chief AI architect, has been named senior vice president of Google DeepMind. He will report directly to Alphabet and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai and take over oversight of Gemini, the company's flagship AI model line, Fortune reported.
Departures Follow the Reshuffle
The management changes coincide with the exit of two of DeepMind's most senior researchers. Chief scientist Jeff Dean and senior fellow Sanjay Ghemawat are leaving Alphabet to start an independent public benefit corporation called Discovery Loop, according to TIME. Both had spent years at the center of Google's AI research efforts.
Alphabet shares fell roughly 4% following news of the reorganization, reflecting investor uncertainty about a leadership transition at the center of the company's AI strategy at a moment of intense competition among frontier AI labs.
Hassabis, who co-founded DeepMind in 2010 and has led the unit through its merger with Google Brain and its rise as the developer of the Gemini model family, will remain closely involved in Alphabet's AI direction in his new chief scientist role, even as Kavukcuoglu assumes responsibility for the unit's operations and product roadmap.
The changes mark one of the most significant reshufflings of Alphabet's AI leadership since DeepMind and Google Brain were combined into a single organization, and come as the company works to keep pace with rivals including OpenAI and Anthropic in the race to build increasingly capable AI systems.
