Sir Demis Hassabis is stepping aside from his role as chief executive of Google DeepMind, marking a significant shift in leadership at the UK-based artificial intelligence research organization.
Hassabis, a Nobel laureate, will transition from his primary management position to serve as the chair of DeepMind while also taking on the role of chief scientist at Alphabet, Google's parent company. Koray Kavukcuoglu, who has been serving as DeepMind’s chief technology officer, will now take the reins as senior vice-president.
The 50-year-old, who was born in London, has been a pivotal figure in the advancement of AI. He co-founded DeepMind in 2010 and sold it to Google for £400 million just four years later. His groundbreaking work in predicting and designing protein structures through DeepMind's AlphaFold model earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2024.
On Wednesday, shares of Alphabet, valued at $4.4 trillion, dropped by 4%, reflecting concerns within the market.
In his announcement, Hassabis expressed that he has been diligently working towards artificial general intelligence (AGI)—a conceptual phase where AI can replicate human cognitive abilities—and believes it is “close at hand.” He emphasized the importance of ensuring that AGI's development is beneficial for humanity, stating, “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 has taken on a more reflective and statesmanlike stance in the AI industry over the past few years. Just last month, he advocated for the establishment of a global oversight entity for AI in the United States to monitor advanced artificial intelligence models. He articulated that the actions taken now will shape the next phase of civilization, expressing optimism for a forthcoming era marked by significant scientific advancement and human progress.
In addition to his role at DeepMind, Hassabis will continue to lead Isomorphic Labs, a drug discovery firm that emerged from DeepMind.
Meanwhile, Google has announced that several leaders involved with its Gemini model, including prominent engineer Jeff Dean, are leaving the company. Dean and another key engineer, Sanjay Ghemawat, are embarking on a new venture called Discovery Loop, which will focus on innovations in machine learning, science, and engineering.
This leadership shakeup comes amidst growing apprehensions among investors that Google may be lagging behind competitors like Anthropic and OpenAI, both of which have successfully recruited top talent from Google this summer and made strides in developing advanced coding agents.
