DeepMind CEO Hassabis steps down, becomes Alphabet chief scientist

Published Aug 6, 05:05 PM UTC

Demis Hassabis, co-founder and chief of Google DeepMind, is stepping down from his day-to-day leadership role as part of a major AI leadership overhaul at Alphabet. Hassabis will become chairman of DeepMind and take on a new role as chief scientist at Alphabet, focusing on artificial general intelligence (AGI) strategy and scientific applications. Koray Kavukcuoglu, DeepMind's CTO and Alphabet's chief AI architect, will succeed Hassabis as head of Google DeepMind, overseeing frontier AI models and the Gemini ecosystem. The change coincides with the departure of longtime Google Chief Scientist Jeff Dean, who is leaving after 27 years to launch AI startup Discovery Loop, which Google plans to back financially. This adds to a series of high-profile exits from Google's AI operations, including Noam Shazeer to OpenAI and Nobel laureate John Jumper to Anthropic. Hassabis stated he believes AGI is 'close at hand' and wants to focus on broader implications. Alphabet shares edged about 1% lower on the news.