Google faces AI leadership shake-up as DeepMind chief Hassabis steps down

Google faces AI leadership shake-up as DeepMind chief Hassabis steps down

Thu, August 6, 2026 at 8:05 PM GMT+3 2 min read

• GOOG -0.81%
• GOOG -0.81%

Google Deepmind chief Demis Hassabis is stepping down from his day-to-day leadership role at the AI research unit as part of a leadership overhaul.

Hassabis, who co-founded DeepMind in 2010 and became one of the most prominent figures in the development of artificial intelligence, will become chairman of DeepMind and take on a newly created role as chief scientist at Alphabet, Google's parent company. He will focus on artificial general intelligence (AGI) strategy and scientific applications of AI while relinquishing his operational responsibilities.

Koray Kavukcuoglu, DeepMind's chief technology officer and Alphabet's chief AI architect, will succeed Hassabis as head of Google DeepMind with the title of senior vice-president. He will oversee day-to-day operations, including the development of the company's frontier AI models and Gemini ecosystem.

Hassabis said on Wednesday that he had been working toward AGI and believed it was "close at hand." He said he wanted to shift his focus toward the broader implications of the technology.

"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 and help influence what is to come to the best of my ability," Hassabis said.

He will also remain chief executive of Isomorphic Labs, the drug discovery company spun out of DeepMind.

The leadership change comes alongside the departure of longtime Google Chief Scientist Jeff Dean, who is leaving after 27 years to launch AI startup Discovery Loop, which Google plans to back financially. The move adds to a series of high-profile departures from Google's AI operations, including researcher Noam Shazeer to OpenAI and Nobel laureate John Jumper to Anthropic.

Shares of Google's parent company Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) edged about 1% lower on Thursday afternoon.