Google Restructures AI Leadership: Demis Hassabis Promoted

Google Restructures Its AI Leadership: Demis Hassabis Promoted

Google has announced a major reshuffle in its AI leadership, with a significant change for the head of Google DeepMind, Demis Hassabis. Hassabis will become the president of Google DeepMind and the chief scientist of Alphabet, as announced by CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday. He will also continue to lead Alphabet's Isomorphic Labs, which aims to use AI to develop medications.

Koray Kavukcuoglu, formerly the CTO of DeepMind, has been promoted to SVP of DeepMind at Google and will report directly to Pichai. Kavukcuoglu will also retain his role as chief AI architect at Google.

Hassabis stated in a message to employees:

"As I have often said, I have always believed that the first application of AI should be to improve human health. It is time for AI to prove its undeniable value to the world, and what better way to demonstrate that than by finally helping to cure diseases like cancer."

He also mentioned that he will continue to work closely with Sundar on strategic and global issues related to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and to advise Kavukcuoglu as well as other DeepMind leaders.

In another significant change, Google veteran Jeff Dean, chief scientist of Google DeepMind and the 30th employee of Google, is leaving the company along with Sanjay Ghemawat, a Google Fellow, to form a public-benefit company focused on AI called Discovery Loop. Google will be a "founding investor" in this new venture, according to Pichai.

Discovery Loop states on its website:

"Our mission is simple: we build AI solutions that can automatically solve significant problems in machine learning, science, and engineering. By accelerating the pace of our discoveries in engineering and science, we can bring the benefits of science and technology to the world much more quickly. Ultimately, our goal is to build AI systems that act as a deeply positive and empowering force for humanity, providing technological solutions that improve people's lives on a global scale."