Big shake-up in Google’s AI team as DeepMind chief executive steps down
📰 source: theguardian_business · 💼 business
demis hassabis is stepping down as chief executive of google deepmind, a shake-up in the uk-based ai lab. he becomes chair of deepmind and takes a new role as chief scientist at alphabet, google's parent. koray kavukcuoglu, deepmind's cto, will lead the lab as senior vice-president.
hassabis, 50, co-founded deepmind in 2010 and sold it to google for £400m four years later. he won the 2024 nobel prize in chemistry for work on alphaFold, which predicts protein structures. alphabet shares closed down 4% on wednesday. hassabis said he has been working toward agi—a system that matches human cognition—and feels it is 'close at hand'. he wants to focus on safely stewarding it.
several gemini model leaders, including veteran engineer jeff dean and sanjay ghemawat, are leaving to start a startup called discovery loop. some investors are concerned google is falling behind rivals anthropic and openai, both of which hired a leading google ai employee this summer and have advanced coding agents.
why it matters: deepmind founder shifts to agi safety focus amid leadership exits, while alphabet shares fell 4% on investor concerns.
source: theguardian_business
sentiment: -0.25 · impact: 0.65