DeepMind Shakes Up Leadership Amid Concerns Over AGI and Gemini

Google's DeepMind has undergone significant changes after its founder and CEO Demis Hassabis stepped aside to take on an advisory role. Hassabis will now serve as the chair of DeepMind and assume a new position as chief scientist at Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

The move comes amidst a broader restructuring effort within DeepMind, aimed at catching up with industry leaders OpenAI and Anthropic. In a note to staff, Hassabis stated that he believed artificial general intelligence (AGI) is 'close at hand' and decided to switch roles to focus on the bigger picture.

Hassabis had been spending less time on Gemini, Google's struggling frontier AI model, in recent months. Some DeepMind employees suggested it made sense for him to step aside, given his increased focus on safety and AGI readiness. Hassabis' departure has sparked concerns about the future of Gemini, which has faced repeated delays and fallen behind its competitors.

Koray Kavukcuoglu, DeepMind's chief technology officer, will take over as head of the company in a senior vice president position. Kavukcuoglu had been leading the development of Gemini long before Hassabis' departure and has emphasized the importance of advancing AI responsibly.