Google's AI Leadership Shakeup: Hassabis Steps Down as DeepMind CEO

Google has announced significant AI leadership changes. Demis Hassabis, previously heading Google DeepMind, will become its chair and Alphabet's chief scientist, while continuing to lead Isomorphic Labs. Koray Kavukcuoglu, formerly DeepMind's CTO, will step up as SVP of DeepMind and report to CEO Sundar Pichai, also retaining his role as Google's chief AI architect. Hassabis stated in a staff message that he believes the number one application of AI should be to improve human health and that he will continue to advise on strategic and global AGI matters. In another change, Jeff Dean, chief scientist of Google DeepMind and Google's 30th employee, along with Google Fellow Sanjay Ghemawat, are leaving to form a new AI-focused public benefit corporation called Discovery Loop, with Google as a founding investor.