Google has announced a leadership transition at Google DeepMind, with Demis Hassabis becoming Chair of Google DeepMind and Alphabet Chief Scientist, while Koray Kavukcuoglu takes the role of SVP of Google DeepMind. Google also said Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat are launching an independent public-benefit corporation...
Google has announced a significant leadership transition at Google DeepMind, moving chief executive Demis Hassabis into the roles of Chair of Google DeepMind and Alphabet Chief Scientist. In the same announcement, Google named Koray Kavukcuoglu as SVP of Google DeepMind.
The changes were set out in a Google company post, The next chapter of our AI momentum. The post also said that Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat are launching an independent public-benefit corporation with Google’s backing.
The announcement signals a new division of responsibilities at one of the industry’s most influential AI research organizations. Hassabis remains connected to Google DeepMind through the chairman role while taking on an Alphabet-wide chief scientist position. Kavukcuoglu, meanwhile, is being elevated to lead Google DeepMind as senior vice president.
Google described Dean and Ghemawat’s new organization as an independent public-benefit corporation supported by Google. Dean has held senior technical and scientific roles at Google, while Ghemawat is a longstanding Google engineer and researcher.
Axios reported that the venture will be called Discovery Loop and that Oriol Vinyals and Quoc Le will join Dean and Ghemawat. The report characterized the shift as part of a broader change in the leadership structure around Google DeepMind.
Google’s own announcement, as cited in the available source material, confirms the departures of Dean and Ghemawat into the new company and the changes involving Hassabis and Kavukcuoglu. Axios adds the reported involvement of Vinyals and Le in Discovery Loop.
The personnel changes bring together several researchers associated with major advances in machine learning and AI systems. The available reports do not provide detailed technical plans for Discovery Loop or specify its research agenda. Nor do they outline the full operational structure that will follow at Google DeepMind under Kavukcuoglu.
What is clear from Google’s statement is that the company is retaining formal ties to the new public-benefit corporation while reorganizing leadership at Google DeepMind. Hassabis’s new Alphabet Chief Scientist role also places him in a position extending beyond the day-to-day leadership of the DeepMind unit.
The changes underscore how Google is attempting to balance leadership continuity, corporate AI strategy and the creation of a separately organized research venture backed by the company.
In the same announcement, Google named Koray Kavukcuoglu as SVP of Google DeepMind.
The changes were set out in a Google company post, The next chapter of our AI momentum .
The post also said that Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat are launching an independent public benefit corporation with Google’s backing.
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