Google AI chief Hassabis moves to AGI research role

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has initiated a leadership transition within its artificial intelligence division. Demis Hassabis, formerly the head of AI, is moving to the newly established position of chief scientist for Alphabet. He will now chair Google DeepMind, stepping down from his CEO role.

This leadership shift coincides with concerns over the delayed release of the flagship version of Google's Gemini model. The flagship model was originally slated for a June launch but has yet to be released, intensifying industry speculation that Google is trailing competitors like Anthropic and OpenAI.

Koray Kavukcuoglu, the current chief technology officer of Google DeepMind, will assume day-to-day operational responsibilities. He will hold the title of senior vice president for the business unit. This transition occurs as several prominent AI leaders, including Jeff Dean, Sanjay Ghemawat, Oriol Vinyals, and Quoc Le, have departed Google.

These departing engineers are reportedly launching a new startup named Discovery Loop. This new venture is structured as a public benefit corporation and will concentrate on pioneering advancements in machine learning, science, and engineering. The company has received investment and a partnership from Google's cloud division.

Hassabis stated his new role will allow him to focus on artificial general intelligence (AGI) research and strategy, including its societal impacts. He also plans to dedicate more time to Isomorphic Labs, a drug discovery company he founded. The timing of these changes and departures has not been publicly explained by Alphabet.