What changed
The announcement took the form of publishing the internal message Pichai sent to the GDM teams. There are two changes: Hassabis moving roles and Koray stepping up.
Hassabis becomes Chair of GDM and Chief Scientist of Alphabet, and continues to lead Isomorphic Labs. The reasons Pichai gives are that Hassabis has been spending much of his time engaging externally, and that the two of them had long been discussing a role letting him put his full attention on shaping the future of AGI — artificial general intelligence.
Hassabis's own message was published alongside. He writes that now is the right time to hand over his day-to-day operational responsibilities at GDM so he has the time and space to focus on the big picture. This is a change of remit, not a departure.
Below are the messages Sundar and Demis sent to employees. ／ Today Demis, Koray and I are sharing a few changes to our Google DeepMind teams that will enable us to do both. ／ Demis has described us as standing in the foothills of the singularity, and has been spending a lot of his time engaging externally ／ He and I have been long discussing a role that allows him to put his full attention on actively shaping the future of AGI. ／ So, moving forward, Demis will become the Chair of GDM and Chief Scientist of Alphabet, while continuing to lead Isomorphic Labs ／ He'll remain closely connected to Koray, Josh, and our GDM teams, advising across models and research. ／ 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 … — From the passages on how this was published, the background to the role change, the new titles and continuing responsibilities, and Hassabis's own explanation of the decision
The successor's title is not "CEO"
This is an announcement easily read as a change of CEO, but the word CEO does not appear in the official message. Koray's new title is SVP of Google DeepMind, reporting directly to Pichai.
The remit is stated explicitly: Gemini model development, Frontier AI research, and the Gemini app and developer teams. Both the side that builds the models and the side that ships them now sit under one person.
Koray has been at DeepMind since its early days — 13 years — and is described as having started the deep learning team and led breakthroughs such as WaveNet in speech synthesis and DQN in reinforcement learning. Before the move his title was GDM's Chief Technology Officer, and he keeps the Chief AI Architect role alongside the SVP position.
Hassabis notes that he and Koray have worked together for over 13 years, calling him one of the world's foremost AI experts and someone who has championed GDM's mission from day one.
Koray , the current Chief Technology Officer of GDM and our Chief AI Architect, will step up as SVP of Google DeepMind, reporting to me. ／ He will oversee Gemini model development, Frontier AI research, and the Gemini app and developer teams. ／ Koray has been at DeepMind since its early days, and over his 13 years there, he has started our deep learning team and led the way on breakthroughs like WaveNet and DQN. ／ Koray and I have been working together for over 13 years, since the early days of DeepMind. ／ He is one of the world's foremost AI experts and has been championing GDM's mission from day one. — From the passages on the new title and reporting line, the remit, the background, and Hassabis's assessment
The other departure announced at the same time
The end of the same message also announces Jeff Dean's departure. After 27 years he is leaving to launch an independent public benefit corporation with Google Senior Fellow Sanjay Ghemawat.
So a restructuring and the exit of someone central to Gemini's development landed on the same day. Google says it will continue the relationship as a founding investor and Cloud partner. We cover this in Discovery Loop, the company Jeff Dean is founding.
Lastly, after an incredible 27-year run, Jeff Dean is at a moment where he wants to try something new, and we're excited to support him in that. ／ Jeff and Google Senior Fellow Sanjay Ghemawat are launching an independent public benefit corporation to accelerate discoveries in ML, science, and engineering. ／ We'll continue to work with them as a founding investor and Cloud partner, and collaborate on a research framework for ML systems and related infrastructure advances. — From the passages on Jeff Dean's tenure and departure, the nature and purpose of the new corporation, and Google's continuing involvement
How to read the change
Hassabis is not leaving. The successor's title is SVP, not CEO. The remit now runs in one line from model development to the product teams. Those three points cover it.
In the same message Pichai writes that the Gemini app has passed 950 million monthly users and that Gemma models have passed 900 million cumulative downloads. The larger the scale, the more it matters to have research and product under a single chain of command. Reading this change as that consolidation is the straightforward interpretation.
the Gemini app reached 950M+ monthly users ／ Gemma models have surpassed 900M+ downloads — From the statements on the Gemini app's monthly users and cumulative Gemma model downloads
