Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis is stepping down, but will remain with the company
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Google DeepMind has confirmed further details of the leadership reshuffle first reported this week, revealing that co-founder and long-serving chief executive Demis Hassabis is moving to the newly created role of chairman while also becoming Alphabet's chief scientist. The changes come amid a wider shake-up of Google's AI division, including the recent disbandment of the Nobel Prize-winning AlphaFold team, of which Hassabis was a member, as the company faces mounting pressure to keep pace with rivals OpenAI and Anthropic.
Koray Kavukcuoglu, DeepMind's current chief technology officer, becomes senior vice-president and takes over day-to-day operations, reporting directly to Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai. Hassabis's chief scientist title frees up because incumbent Jeff Dean is departing to launch a startup, Discovery Loop, focused on self-improving AI models, taking several colleagues with him; Google is investing an undisclosed sum and will act as the venture's cloud provider. Hassabis continues to lead the AI drug-discovery spin-off Isomorphic Labs. Separately, Google has also announced it could invest up to $40 billion (£31 billion) in Anthropic, having already committed $10 billion in April with a further $30 billion tied to performance milestones.
- Hassabis becomes DeepMind chairman and Alphabet chief scientist, staying on
- Koray Kavukcuoglu takes over daily DeepMind operations as senior VP
- Jeff Dean leaves to found AI startup Discovery Loop, backed by Google
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Google DeepMind is the AI research arm of Google's parent company, Alphabet, and has been behind some of the firm's most high-profile artificial intelligence work, including the protein-structure prediction system AlphaFold, which won its creators a Nobel Prize. Demis Hassabis co-founded the company in 2010 and has led it ever since, becoming one of the most prominent figures in the AI industry as it merged with Google's other AI teams in 2023.
The reshuffle sits within a broader contest between Google and rival AI developers OpenAI and Anthropic, all racing to build ever more capable AI systems. Google has faced questions about whether its internal structure is keeping pace with competitors, and has recently reorganised parts of its AI division and moved to deepen its financial ties with Anthropic, one of the very companies it is competing against.
Alphabet is the umbrella company that owns Google, DeepMind and various other ventures, and is run by chief executive Sundar Pichai. Understanding who reports to whom, and how roles such as chief executive, chairman and chief scientist differ, helps explain why changes at the top of DeepMind matter beyond the company itself, touching on Alphabet's wider AI strategy and its relationships with rivals and partners.
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