Google DeepMind Reshuffles Leadership as Hassabis Becomes Alphabet Chief Scientist
Google is reshaping the leadership of Google DeepMind, with co-founder Demis Hassabis moving from CEO to chair of the AI unit while taking on the newly created role of chief scientist at Alphabet. Hassabis will focus more heavily on long-term artificial general intelligence (AGI) research and strategy while continuing to lead Isomorphic Labs, Alphabet’s AI-driven drug discovery company.
Koray Kavukcuoglu, previously Google DeepMind’s chief technology officer and chief AI architect, will assume day-to-day leadership as senior vice president of Google DeepMind and report directly to Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The changes come as Google pushes to accelerate its AI work and prepare its next generation of Gemini models.
Hassabis Shifts From Operations to Long-Term AI Research
Hassabis said the change will give him more time to focus on the development and broader implications of AGI, which he believes is approaching a pivotal stage. He will continue advising DeepMind’s leadership on models and research while taking a more strategic role across Alphabet.
His new position also expands his responsibilities beyond Google DeepMind. As Alphabet’s chief scientist, Hassabis will work with Pichai on long-term AI and scientific priorities, while continuing to lead Isomorphic Labs, which applies AI to drug discovery and biological research.
Kavukcuoglu Takes Over Google DeepMind
Kavukcuoglu has been with DeepMind for more than a decade and was involved in some of the lab’s early deep-learning work. He has led research and engineering efforts behind systems including WaveNet and Deep Q-Networks and later became Google’s chief AI architect.
In his expanded role, he will oversee Gemini model development, frontier AI research, as well as the Gemini application and developer teams. Pichai said the new structure is intended to let DeepMind move faster while keeping its research and product teams closely aligned.
Leadership Changes Follow Senior AI Departures
The restructuring follows the departure of several prominent Google AI researchers and executives. Longtime Google chief scientist Jeff Dean and senior AI researcher Sanjay Ghemawat have left to launch an independent public benefit corporation focused on machine learning, science and engineering.
Other senior figures, including Gemini co-lead Oriol Vinyals and researchers who worked on Google's frontier models, have also departed in recent months. The exits come as Google faces intense competition from OpenAI and Anthropic, which have been attracting researchers and releasing increasingly capable models.
Gemini Development Remains a Priority
Google DeepMind is continuing work on new Gemini models as the company tries to maintain its position among the leading frontier AI developers. Hassabis said in his message to employees that the Gemini models are in good hands under Kavukcuoglu and the existing leadership team, while pointing to progress on upcoming releases including Gemini 4.
Google has also highlighted strong demand for its AI products. The Gemini app has surpassed 950 million monthly users, while Google's Gemma open models have recorded more than 900 million downloads, according to the company's leadership announcement.
Google Bets on a Different Role for Hassabis
The leadership change does not remove Hassabis from Google’s AI strategy. Instead, it shifts him toward research, long-term planning and the broader scientific implications of increasingly capable AI systems.
For Google DeepMind, the immediate challenge is to translate that structure into faster model development while retaining its research strength. With Kavukcuoglu taking operational control and Hassabis concentrating on AGI and science, Google is separating day-to-day execution from the long-term AI strategy at a crucial point in the competition.
