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Alphabet's Google Reorganizes AI Leadership as Chief Scientist Jeff Dean Departs

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Alphabet's Google Reorganizes AI Leadership as Chief Scientist Jeff Dean Departs

Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google announced new roles for DeepMind Chief Executive Demis Hassabis amid an artificial intelligence reshuffle as Chief Scientist Jeff Dean departs.

Hassabis will become chairman of Google DeepMind and assume the chief scientist role at Alphabet, according to memos sent by Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Hassabis on Wednesday.

Hassabis co-founded DeepMind in 2010, a London-based AI company that Google acquired in 2014, Reuters reported. Alphabet merged DeepMind and Google Brain into a new organization called Google DeepMind in 2023.

"(Hassabis) and I have been long discussing a role that allows him to put his full attention on actively shaping the future of (artificial general intelligence)," Pichai said in a memo.

Hassabis, a Nobel Prize recipient, will continue to lead Isomorphic Labs, a drug discovery company that was spun out of DeepMind in 2021.

"I've decided that now is the right time for me to hand over my day-to-day operational responsibilities at (Google DeepMind), 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 in a separate memo sent to Google DeepMind staff.

Dean, who joined Google in 1999 and co-founded the Google Brain project, is launching Discovery Loop, a public benefit corporation that will focus on discoveries in machine learning, science and engineering.

Google Senior Fellow Sanjay Ghemawat is among Discovery Loop's co-founders.

"Jeff Dean is at a moment where he wants to try something new, and we're excited to support him in that," Pichai said. "We'll continue to work with them as a founding investor and cloud partner, and collaborate on a research framework for (machine learning) systems and related infrastructure advances."

Additionally, Google DeepMind Chief Technology Officer Koray Kavukcuoglu became senior vice president of the unit while retaining his role as Google's chief AI architect.

Alphabet's class C and A shares were down 4.3% each in Wednesday late afternoon trade.

Last month, Alphabet reported negative free cash flow of $5.86 billion in the second quarter due to capital expenditures. At the time, it raised its 2026 capex outlook to between $195 billion and $205 billion amid surging AI demand.

Price: $359.14, Change: $-16.21, Percent Change: -4.32%

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