Google is overhauling its AI leadership.
CEO Sundar Pichai said in a post on Wednesday that DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis will step down from the role to become Alphabet’s chief scientist, focusing on long-term AI research. Google veteran Jeff Dean is also leaving to launch a new initiative with fellow engineering leader Sanjay Ghemawat.
The shake-up comes as Google faces mounting pressure from competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic in key areas such as AI coding. Alphabet shares fell as much as 5% following the announcement.
Here is what the smartest voices in business and tech are saying about Google’s AI executive shake-up.
Sebastian Mallaby, author of ‘The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence’
Sebastian Mallaby, a British journalist and author who once wrote a biography of Hassabis and DeepMind, said in a on X that the change is “a formalization of something that had been happening informally.”
“Demis has been playing the role of Google AI statesman for some time, and Koray Kavukcuoglu has been running Google DeepMind research for some time,” Mallaby said.
“He cared enough about safety that he fought a three-year battle with Alphabet to get external oversight over DeepMind’s AI deployment,” Mallaby added of Hassabis. “This next chapter of his career is a return to that side of his work.”
Vinod Khosla, entrepreneur and venture capitalist
Vinod Khosla, a billionaire entrepreneur and a cofounder of Sun Microsystems, wrote in a post on X that Google has been “the real source of AI acceleration,” from developing Waymo cars when most people were skeptics to investing heavily in AI.
“Lots of research in universities but this team, including Sundar, Larry & Sergey, deserve full credit for believing, investing and accelerating it,” said Khosla on Wednesday. “Huge impact.”
Ben Pouladian, founder of BEP Research
Pouladian, the founder of BEP Research, an AI infrastructure research firm, said that the change in structure means that Google “finally wants to play to win.”
“My read: putting Amin Vahdat, the architect behind Google’s TPU infrastructure, closer to the center is about streamlining the whole machine,” Pouladian wrote on X on Wednesday.
“Less internal politics. Better compute allocation. One AI strategy,” Pouladian added.
Zvi Mowshowitz, writer and founder of Balsa Research
Zvi Mowshowitz, founder of Balsa Research, an AI policy research agency, said on X on Wednesday that Google’s shift doesn’t bode well for AI safety.
“Big moves at Google DeepMind,” Mowshowitz said. “Early read is this is Demis being ‘kicked upstairs’ and allowed to work on his special projects. Also Jeff Dean is stepping away.”
“Presumably this puts the final nail in the coffin of ‘DeepMind has meaningful safety practices, assurances or independence from the rest of Google,'” Mowshowitz added.
Tae Kim, veteran tech journalist and author of First Adopter
Tae Kim, a veteran tech journalist and author of the bestselling AI and semiconductor newsletter First Adopter, said it may be “Game over” for DeepMind.
“Jeff Dean and Demis Hassabis are the two most important AI executives at Google,” said Kim in a post on X on Wednesday. “Jeff is leaving and Demis is stepping down from day-to-day operational leadership at DeepMind.”
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