In a significant restructuring of its artificial intelligence division, Google has announced that Demis Hassabis is stepping down from his current role to become the Chair of Google DeepMind and Chief Scientist at Alphabet. The announcement was made by CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday.
Strategic Leadership Shifts
Hassabis will maintain his leadership of Isomorphic Labs, Alphabet’s venture dedicated to AI-driven drug discovery. In a message to employees, Hassabis expressed his belief that the primary application of AI should be improving human health, specifically highlighting the potential to address diseases such as cancer. He will continue to advise on strategic AGI matters alongside Pichai.
Taking over the operational reins, Koray Kavukcuoglu—formerly DeepMind’s CTO—has been promoted to Senior Vice President of DeepMind. Kavukcuoglu will report directly to Pichai and remain Google’s chief AI architect.
The Launch of Discovery Loop
The shakeup also includes the departure of veteran engineers Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat. Dean, a foundational figure at Google and its 30th employee, is leaving to co-found Discovery Loop, an AI-focused public benefit corporation.
- Discovery Loop aims to build AI systems that solve complex problems in machine learning, science, and engineering.
- Google will serve as a "founding investor" in the new entity.
- The company’s mission is to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery for global benefit.
