Demis Hassabis, the co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, is stepping aside from day-to-day leadership in a major reshuffle at Google's flagship AI division. Hassabis will become DeepMind's chair and take on a new role as chief scientist at Alphabet, while CTO Koray Kavukcuoglu will lead DeepMind as senior vice president.

In a note to staff, Hassabis said he believed artificial general intelligence (AGI) is "close at hand" and that he wanted to switch roles "so that I have the time and space to focus on the big picture and help influence what is to come to the best of my ability."

The move comes alongside a broader restructuring of Google DeepMind. Lila Ibrahim, DeepMind's Chief AI Readiness Officer, will now report to senior Google executive James Manyika, while some safety teams will move under Google's president of global affairs Kent Walker — though two sources warned no decision has been finalized. Communications, legal, and marketing teams from DeepMind will merge with Google's corresponding teams.

The reshuffle arrives at a turbulent time for Google's AI efforts. Gemini has faced repeated delays and has fallen behind models from OpenAI and Anthropic at the frontier. The company is also losing top talent at a rapid pace: longtime chief scientist Jeff Dean announced his departure on the same day as Hassabis's announcement, leaving with several colleagues to launch a startup. John Jumper, a scientist who shared a Nobel Prize with Hassabis for AI protein structure prediction, left DeepMind earlier this year to join Anthropic.

Kavukcuoglu had already been taking increasing responsibility for Gemini's development. In company briefings, he led Gemini discussions while Hassabis attended only the most significant meetings about the model, spending more time on post-AGI readiness, safety, AI governance, and working with governments including at the recent G7 summit.

The restructuring signals Google's urgency to streamline its AI operations and catch up in an increasingly competitive landscape, even as it raises questions about the future role of safety teams within the organization.

Sources