Google moves AI responsibility team out of DeepMind

Google moves AI responsibility team out of DeepMind

Thu, August 27, 2026 at 4:41 PM GMT+3 2 min read

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is relocating its AI responsibility unit from Google DeepMind to its global affairs division, the part of the company that handles lobbying and public policy.

The roughly 90-person team — whose work includes evaluating Google's AI models for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear hazards and examining user behavior and the psychological effects of chatbots — is set to complete the transition at the beginning of September, the Journal reported after reviewing an internal email about the shift. Some employees on the team have raised concerns that the reassignment will limit their independence and reduce their access to the researchers developing Google's Gemini models.

Helen King, a vice president at Google DeepMind who runs the responsibility team, sought to reassure staff in the email, writing that the team's focus on emerging and frontier topics in responsible AI would remain unchanged and that publishing research externally "continues to be supported and important." King added that the team's access to DeepMind would be preserved, along with its computing infrastructure and staffing levels.

"Many teams across Google work on AI safety and responsibility, and by bringing our AI responsibility teams closer together we're strengthening their ability to inform safety for our models and products," a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

The shift is part of broader organizational changes that are integrating DeepMind more tightly with the rest of Google. According to the Journal, functions such as HR and policy are similarly being transferred from DeepMind to Google's central organization. The reorganization follows a leadership change in which DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis stepped aside from his CEO role into a new chairman position focused on external engagements. Koray Kavukcuoglu has taken over as head of DeepMind with the title of senior vice president.

Other AI safety teams within DeepMind — including groups working on model behavior, privacy, and security — will remain inside the lab, according to the Journal. According to the Journal, managers have privately conceded during internal discussions that the changes carry a real risk of talent loss to rival AI laboratories. Before the transition took effect, a number of responsibility team members applied to join research groups that are staying inside DeepMind, only to have those requests turned down, the Journal reported.

Hassabis had been a prominent voice on AI governance. Earlier this year, he called for the U.S. to establish an AI standards body modeled on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the private, industry-funded watchdog that polices Wall Street, arguing that frontier AI labs should submit their models for safety evaluation before release.