Google AI leadership shakeup: DeepMind's Hassabis moves to Alphabet Chief Scientist, Jeff Dean exits for startup Discovery Loop

Hassabis moves to strategic roles

Demis Hassabis, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist of Greek Cypriot origin, is leaving the day-to-day leadership of Google DeepMind after leading the unit through its most competitive period. He will take on two new titles: Chairman of Google DeepMind and Chief Scientist of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. He will also continue to lead Isomorphic Labs, an Alphabet subsidiary focused on using AI for drug discovery and development.

In a message to staff, Hassabis said he has worked on artificial general intelligence (AGI) his entire life and now feels it is very close, prompting his decision to hand over daily operational responsibilities to focus on the bigger picture and help shape what comes next.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, said in a separate memo that he and Hassabis had long discussed a role that would allow him to focus fully on shaping the future of AGI, calling it vitally important work for Alphabet and humanity.

Koray Kavukcuoglu takes operational reins

Koray Kavukcuoglu, previously Chief Technology Officer of DeepMind, will assume the daily operational duties. He will hold the title of Senior Vice President of Google for DeepMind, rather than CEO, and will report directly to Pichai. He will also retain his role as Chief AI Architect of Alphabet.

The change reflects the group's intention to strengthen operational coordination at DeepMind while Hassabis moves to a broader strategic and scientific role. Kavukcuoglu's promotion comes at a critical time for the unit, as the top version of its latest Gemini model remains unreleased despite being scheduled for release in June, fueling investor concerns that Google is falling behind competitors.

Jeff Dean and top researchers depart for Discovery Loop

Jeff Dean, Chief Scientist of Google DeepMind and one of the company's most legendary engineers, is departing along with three other renowned AI leaders: Sanjay Ghemawat, Oriol Vinyals, and Quoc Le. The four are leaving to found Discovery Loop, a public benefit corporation focused on research for new discoveries in machine learning, science, and engineering.

Dean joined Google in 1999, just a year after its founding, and was the 30th employee hired. He played a central role in developing critical infrastructure and, in recent years, led the company's AI strategy. The startup's goal is to use AI itself to automate research for developing new machine learning models.

Google will be a founding investor in Discovery Loop and will provide computing power through Google Cloud, maintaining a close relationship with the new venture. This arrangement shows the two sides are not heading for a complete rupture despite the departure of individuals who had a decisive role in the group's technological evolution.

Market reaction and competitive pressure

Alphabet shares fell approximately 4% after the announcements, according to Reuters. The decline reflects investor anxiety as Google faces intense pressure from OpenAI, behind ChatGPT, and Anthropic, developer of Claude, in the race for AI dominance.

The leadership changes come amid a chain of departures and internal reshuffles at Google. In 2026, the company has already lost Nobel laureate John Jumper, who moved to Anthropic, and Noam Shazeer, who joined OpenAI. According to Bloomberg, employees have described the recent departures in terms that signal growing unease within the ranks.

Hassabis, in his message, struck an optimistic tone about AI's potential to improve human health, saying the time has come for AI to prove its value to the world, and asking what better way than to finally contribute to curing diseases like cancer.