Google DeepMind Undergoes Leadership Overhaul Amid AI Competition

Google announced a sweeping leadership overhaul of its Google DeepMind AI division on August 5. Demis Hassabis stepped aside as chief to become chair, while his deputy, Koray Kavukcuoglu, took over as head of the division. This reorganization occurred as two original technical co-leads of the Gemini model quit to start their own company. The moves follow a period where Google delayed the new flagship version of Gemini by two months after internal testing indicated performance lagged behind rivals in areas such as coding.

Co-founder Sergey Brin has recently urged key AI staff to focus fully on the Gemini model to close the gap with competitors like Anthropic and OpenAI. In an April town hall, Brin reportedly urged the DeepMind lab to move faster. The reorganization also involves moving some teams out of DeepMind and into corporate Google, which represents a further erosion of the London-based lab's autonomy since its 2014 acquisition.

Koray Kavukcuoglu, who was appointed as Google's chief AI architect in 2025, is tasked with embedding Gemini across company products. Sources indicate he had the backing of Brin and became the central figure shaping the direction of Gemini. Following the announcement, Google's stock dropped 4 percent. During a unit-wide meeting, Hassabis and Kavukcuoglu told staff that day-to-day work at the lab would remain the same.