Google got a slow start with generative AI after seemingly being caught flat-footed by Microsoft’s Copilot reveal. What a difference a few years make. Now, Google is at the forefront of AI development (for better or worse), but new cracks are beginning to show. The company’s string of high-profile personnel departures continues, and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has now said he will hand off day-to-day responsibilities to take on an oversight role at parent company Alphabet.
Hassabis was one of the founders of DeepMind, and he maintained a key leadership role after Google acquired it. As the generative AI boom took off, Hassabis has been one of the loudest voices predicting the impending creation of artificial general intelligence (AGI), which is typically described as an AI with human-like capabilities and intelligence.
In his memo announcing his decision to leave DeepMind, Hassabis again leans on the promise of AGI. “I’ve been working towards AGI my whole life and now, like many of you, I feel it is close at hand,” said Hassabis.
According to Hassabis, this shift will allow him to focus on the “big picture” work that is necessary at this moment. He will remain in charge of Google’s Isomorphic Labs, which uses AI to solve biomedical problems.
The daily operation of DeepMind, which works on the underlying AI research that fuels all of Google’s Gemini advances, will be handed off to Koray Kavukcuoglu. He will serve as DeepMind’s senior vice president, reporting directly to CEO Sundar Pichai. Hassabis, meanwhile, is becoming the chair of DeepMind and chief scientist at Alphabet.