Google announced a broad reshuffling of its artificial intelligence leadership on Wednesday, with longtime chief scientist Jeff Dean leaving the company after 27 years and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis transitioning out of his day-to-day operational role.
Dean, a figure widely credited with foundational technical breakthroughs at Google, is departing to found a new company alongside Google senior fellow Sanjay Ghemawat, according to a memo from CEO Sundar Pichai posted to Google's blog. The separation is on friendly terms, and Google said it will invest in Dean's startup.
Dean confirmed on X that the new venture will be called Discovery Loop and will be organized as a public benefit corporation focused on AI applications in science and engineering.
"After an incredible 27-year run, Jeff Dean is at a moment where he wants to try something new, and we're excited to support him in that," Pichai wrote. He added that Dean and Ghemawat will be working to "accelerate discoveries" in machine learning, science, and engineering.
Hassabis, who co-founded DeepMind before Google acquired the lab in 2014 and has since led nearly all of Alphabet's foundational AI work, is moving into a chairman role at Google DeepMind. He will simultaneously assume the title of chief scientist of parent company Alphabet — the position Dean is vacating.
"I've decided that now is the right time for me to hand over my day-to-day operational responsibilities at GDM, 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," Hassabis said in a note to employees. He added that he would work with Pichai on "strategic and global" matters related to AI.
Filling the operational gap at DeepMind is Koray Kavukcuoglu, the division's technology chief, who has been promoted to head of the AI unit. Kavukcuoglu will report directly to Pichai and will lead development of Gemini 4, Google's next major AI model.
The leadership overhaul comes as Google faces intensifying competition from OpenAI and Anthropic in the race to develop frontier AI models, while simultaneously expanding its cloud infrastructure to serve both enterprise customers and its own workloads.
That infrastructure push has come at a significant cost. In its latest quarter, Google turned cash flow negative for the first time on record due to capital expenditures, and the company has forecast full-year capex of up to $205 billion.
Alphabet shares fell approximately 4% following Wednesday's announcement, reflecting investor sensitivity to the scope of the management changes.
Dean's departure ends one of the longer tenures of any senior technical figure at a major technology company. His exit — alongside Hassabis's step back from operational leadership — marks a generational shift at the top of Google's AI organization, even as the company continues to invest at a scale few competitors can match. How Kavukcuoglu manages the Gemini 4 development cycle will be an early test of whether the restructuring sharpens or complicates Google's ability to stay competitive.
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