Demis Hassabis is stepping aside from his role as CEO of Google DeepMind (GDM) to become the unit’s Chair and the Chief Scientist of Alphabet, Google said in an announcement on Wednesday.
In his message, Hassabis stated that it is “critical that we collectively get the next steps right to ensure this all goes well for humanity and we usher in an incredible new age of discovery and wonder.” He added 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.”
DeepMind was founded in 2010 in London, with Hassabis among the founders, and was acquired by Google in 2014. In 2023, a merger with Google Brain unified fundamental AI research with large‑scale product implementation under Google DeepMind.
Under the new structure, Hassabis will serve as Chair of Google DeepMind and Chief Scientist of Alphabet, the parent holding company formed in 2015 to separate core internet businesses from more experimental ventures.
Despite the change, he will continue to lead Isomorphic Labs and remain closely connected to the DeepMind team, advising on models and research.
Koray Kavukcuoglu, previously GDM’s Chief Technology Officer and Alphabet’s Chief AI Architect, will step up as Senior Vice President of Google DeepMind, taking over day‑to‑day operations and reporting to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet.
Kavukcuoglu has been with DeepMind for over 13 years and helped pioneer breakthroughs such as WaveNet and DQN.
“The Gemini models are in good hands with Koray and the leads, as they have been for a while, and I’m excited about the great progress we’re making with our new models including Gemini 4,” Hassabis said.
