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Published – August 05, 2026 10:44 pm IST – SAN FRANCISCO
Demis Hassabis, a Nobel laureate, will take the newly-created title of Alphabet’s chief scientist and transition from being Google DeepMind CEO to being its chairman. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Google parent company Alphabet on Wednesday (August 5, 2026) announced a leadership overhaul of its AI division, with AI chief Demis Hassabis leaving his main managerial role and several leaders of its Gemini model, including veteran engineer Jeff Dean, departing the company. The shakeup comes during a pivotal juncture for Google DeepMind: the flagship version of its latest Gemini model remains unreleased despite a planned June launch, sparking investor and industry concerns that Google is falling behind its rivals Anthropic and OpenAI, each of which scooped up a star Google AI staffer this summer.
Shares of Alphabet fell 4% after the news. Mr. Hassabis, a Nobel Prize recipient, will take the newly-created title of Alphabet’s chief scientist and transition from being Google DeepMind CEO to being its chairman, he said in a memo to staff. He cited the closeness of artificial general intelligence (AGI), an advanced state of AI in which computers in essence become as smart as humans, as the impetus for his role change.
“[And] I have been long discussing a role that allows him to put his full attention on actively shaping the future of AGI,” Alphabet chief Sundar Pichai said in a separate companywide memo. “It’s work that is vitally important to Alphabet and humanity, and I can’t imagine a better person than Demis to do it.” Koray Kavukcuoglu, the unit’s chief technology officer, will assume day-to-day responsibilities. He will hold the title of senior vice-president, rather than CEO, of the business unit, in addition to his parallel role as Alphabet’s chief AI architect.