Journalism begins where hype ends

,,

We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.” "

—Alan Turing

Google DeepMind Leadership Shake-Up: Demis Hassabis Shifts to AGI Strategy as Kavukcuoglu Takes Operational Helm

Hassabis said he has worked toward AGI throughout his career and believes it is now “close at hand.” Stepping away from operational responsibilities will allow him to focus on the broader strategic direction of AGI and help ensure the technology benefits humanity. He becomes Chair of Google DeepMind and Chief Scientist of Alphabet while continuing to lead Isomorphic Labs; Koray Kavukcuoglu takes over as SVP of Google DeepMind.
From left to right Demis Hassabis, Koray Kavukcuoglu
August 7, 2026 10:22 PM IST | Written by Supriya Singh | Edited by Vaibhav Jha

Google has announced a major leadership reshuffle at its AI division, with Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis stepping down from day-to-day management to take on a new role as Chair of Google DeepMind and chief scientist of Alphabet.

In a message to employees, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said Hassabis will focus on shaping the future of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and advancing scientific research, while continuing to lead Isomorphic Labs. DeepMind will now be led by Koray Kavukcuoglu, its chief technology officer, under the title of senior vice president.

Sharing the news in a post on X Pichai said,” Hassabis will be able to dedicate his time and focus on shaping the future of AGI and scientific discovery.

 

Hassabis said he has worked toward AGI throughout his career and believes it is now “close at hand”. He said stepping away from operational responsibilities will allow him to focus on the broader strategic direction of AGI and help ensure the technology benefits humanity.

“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.

 

Meanwhile Koray will oversee Gemini model development, Frontier AI research, and the Gemini app and developer teams. “Koray has been at DeepMind since its early days, and over his 13 years there, he has started our deep learning team and led the way on breakthroughs like WaveNet and DQN. I look forward to seeing him lead GDM into this next chapter,” Pichai mentioned.

 

London-born Hassabis has emerged as one of the defining figures of the AI era. Google recognized his potential early as it acquired DeepMind just four years after he founded the company. In 2024, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing AlphaFold, DeepMind’s AI system for predicting and designing protein structures.

In 2015, the Financial Times named Hassabis as one of the “Top 50 entrepreneurs in Europe” and the following year as the “Digital entrepreneur of the year.” Science magazine named AlphaGo one of the “Top 10 scientific breakthroughs of 2016” and TIME magazine recognized Hassabis as one of the “World’s 100 Most influential people” in 2017.

Google also announced that its chief scientist Jeff Dean and senior fellow Sanjay Ghemawat will leave the company after almost 27 years to launch an independent public benefit corporation to accelerate discoveries in ML, science, and engineering.

“Jeff and Sanjay helped to drive some of the most significant technology transitions, from our early search infrastructure to the neural networks that helped create the modern AI era,” Pichai expressed.

He also highlighted that the company will continue to work with them as a founding investor and Cloud partner, and will collaborate on a research framework for ML systems and related infrastructure advances.

Also Read: AI Pioneer Noam Shazeer Joins OpenAI After Landmark Career at Google

Authors

  • AI FrontPage Reporter Supriya Singh

    Supriya Singh is a Reporter at AI FrontPage covering the AI & Education and AI & Jobs beats. She brings six years of print and digital experience, including three years at The Asian Age, where she reported on higher education, Delhi government, and crime. She is based in Delhi-NCR.

    LinkedIn
  • Vaibhav Jha, editor and co-founder at AI FrontPage

    Vaibhav Jha is an Editor and Co-founder of AI FrontPage. In his decade long career in journalism, Vaibhav has reported for publications including The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, and The New York Times, covering the intersection of technology, policy, and society. Outside work, he’s usually trying to persuade people to watch Anurag Kashyap films.

    LinkedIn

Related Posts

LATEST NEWS