Archive · 6 Aug 2026
Alphabet's AI Leadership Overhaul: Hassabis Chief Scientist, Kavukcuoglu Leads DeepMind
Google's parent company, Alphabet, made big changes to the people in charge of its artificial intelligence, or AI, work.
Demis Hassabis, a famous AI scientist who helped start DeepMind in 2010, is stepping down as the boss of Google DeepMind.
He will now be the top science leader for all of Alphabet and the chair of Google DeepMind.
His new job is to think about AGI, a kind of super-smart AI that could think like people, which he says is very close to becoming real.
Another expert, Koray Kavukcuoglu, will take over the day-to-day running of Google DeepMind after 13 years at the lab.
A long-time Google scientist named Jeff Dean is leaving after 27 years to start a new company called Discovery Loop with three colleagues.
The Gemini app, one of Google's AI products, now has more than 950 million users every month.
Google is also facing tough competition from other AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.
The changes are meant to help Google move faster on AI while making sure it benefits humanity.
Alphabet elevated Demis Hassabis to Chair of Google DeepMind and Chief Scientist of Alphabet as he steps down as DeepMind CEO.
Koray Kavukcuoglu, formerly Google DeepMind's CTO, becomes Senior Vice President, overseeing model development, research, and the Gemini app and developer teams.
Jeff Dean is leaving Google after 27 years to co-found Discovery Loop, a public benefit corporation, with Sanjay Ghemawat, Oriol Vinyals, and Quoc Le.
The Gemini app has surpassed 950 million monthly users, and Gemini models are seeing strong demand from developers and businesses.
Hassabis called AGI "close at hand" and said stepping back from daily operations lets him focus on AGI and scientific discovery while continuing to lead Isomorphic Labs.
- Who
- Google CEO Sundar Pichai; Demis Hassabis, new Chair of Google DeepMind and Chief Scientist of Alphabet; Koray Kavukcuoglu, new Senior Vice President of Google DeepMind; and Jeff Dean, leaving Google after 27 years.
- What
- Alphabet announced a major AI leadership overhaul: Hassabis steps down as DeepMind CEO to focus on AGI, Kavukcuoglu takes charge of Google DeepMind and the Gemini teams, and Jeff Dean departs to co-found Discovery Loop.
- When
- Wednesday, August 5, 2026, announced via Sundar Pichai's post on X.
- Where
- Announced publicly on X (Twitter) by Sundar Pichai; the changes affect Alphabet and Google DeepMind operations.
- Why
- To accelerate Google's AI work and give Hassabis time and space to shape the future of AGI and scientific discovery, as Google competes with OpenAI and Anthropic for AI talent.
- Company
- Alphabet (parent company of Google)
- Hassabis's new roles
- Chair of Google DeepMind and Chief Scientist of Alphabet; remains CEO of Isomorphic Labs
- Kavukcuoglu's new role
- Senior Vice President of Google DeepMind; at the lab for 13 years; built the deep learning team and drove breakthroughs like WaveNet and DQN
- Jeff Dean's exit
- Leaving Google after 27 years; helped grow the company "from 25 people to over 190,000"
- Discovery Loop
- Public benefit corporation founded by Jeff Dean, Sanjay Ghemawat, Oriol Vinyals, and Quoc Le; Google will be an investor and cloud service provider
- Gemini monthly users
- Over 950 million
- Gemini 3.5 Pro
- Release reportedly pushed back after it reportedly failed to reach its goals
- Market and competition
- Alphabet stock dropped four percent after the news; competition for AI talent includes OpenAI and Anthropic, with Nobel winner John Jumper recently joining Anthropic
