Zoph Joins Google DeepMind Amid AI Reshuffle

Barret Zoph, co-founder of artificial intelligence startup Thinking Machines Lab, will join Alphabet-owned unit Google DeepMind as Vice President of Research. This move is part of a series of AI-driven reshuffles at the company.

Zoph has had a complex career trajectory in the field. He spent six years with Google as a research scientist in Google Brain, which was later merged with DeepMind to form Google DeepMind in 2023. However, he left and co-founded Thinking Machines Lab, only to return briefly to OpenAI earlier this year.

The move is not surprising given the recent shakeup at Alphabet's AI lab. In an all-hands meeting on August 6, it was revealed that some teams were moving out of DeepMind and into corporate Google.