The next chapter of our AI momentum
Editor’s note: Today, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai shared some changes with Google DeepMind teams, including new roles for Demis Hassabis and Koray Kavukcuoglu. Below are the messages Sundar and Demis sent to employees.
Message from Sundar Pichai
We’ve made extraordinary progress to deliver on our full AI stack. We’ve got amazing talent, world-class compute, and products that bring AI to more people than any other company. And you saw the incredible momentum at earnings across all our businesses, including Search, YouTube, and Cloud. Our Gemini models are in high demand among developers and businesses, and the Gemini app reached 950M+ monthly users. Meanwhile, our AI research continues to drive field-defining breakthroughs (like last week’s Gemini Robotics advances).
We have to accelerate all this work and stay focused on the AI frontier. At the same time, there’s never been a more important moment to shape the future of AGI and science. Today Demis, Koray and I are sharing a few changes to our Google DeepMind teams that will enable us to do both.
AGI and science: Demis has described us as standing in the foothills of the singularity, and has been spending a lot of his time engaging externally. He and I have been long discussing a role that allows him to put his full attention on actively shaping the future of AGI. It’s work that is vitally important to Alphabet and humanity, and I can’t imagine a better person than Demis to do it. So, moving forward, Demis will become the Chair of GDM and Chief Scientist of Alphabet, while continuing to lead Isomorphic Labs. He’ll remain closely connected to Koray, Josh, and our GDM teams, advising across models and research. I’m so excited for Demis — this is truly his life’s work and purpose. You can read Demis’s note to GDM below.
Google DeepMind: We are building strong momentum: Flash is in high demand, our Cyber model is live, and Gemma models have surpassed 900M+ downloads. We are committed to being at the frontier, and are super focused on the areas where we need to improve. I’m really excited for our upcoming model releases and the progress we’re seeing. We have to continue to move fast and with clear purpose here. Koray, the current Chief Technology Officer of GDM and our Chief AI Architect, will step up as SVP of Google DeepMind, reporting to me. He 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.
Lastly, after an incredible 27-year run, Jeff Dean is at a moment where he wants to try something new, and we’re excited to support him in that. Jeff and Google Senior Fellow Sanjay Ghemawat are launching 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. On a personal note, it’s been a privilege to work alongside Jeff and Sanjay, and I wish them all the best! We’ll continue to work with them as a founding investor and Cloud partner, and collaborate on a research framework for ML systems and related infrastructure advances.
We are at a dynamic moment with so much opportunity ahead. With today's changes we're going to keep driving our momentum. Onwards!
-Sundar
Message from Demis Hassabis
Hi Team
We have arrived at a pivotal moment in human history. I’ve been working towards AGI my whole life and now, like many of you, I feel it is close at hand. It’s 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.
With this backdrop, 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. I will be taking on a new strategic role as Chair of GDM and Chief Scientist of Alphabet, and I’m excited to announce that Koray will be stepping up to lead GDM as SVP of Google DeepMind, in addition to his role as Chief AI Architect of Google.
Koray and I have been working together for over 13 years, since the early days of DeepMind. He is one of the world's foremost AI experts and has been championing GDM's mission from day one. I have total confidence in Koray, Josh, and the rest of the GDM exec team as they continue to spearhead the latest AI developments across Google. 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.
In my new role, I will continue to work closely with Sundar on strategic and global AGI matters, and to advise Koray, Josh, and the GDM leads, from our awesome new London Platform 37 offices. As part of this transition, I’ll also be leaning into my role at Isomorphic, where we are making extremely rapid and promising progress, to accelerate our mission there even faster. As you've heard me say many times, I’ve always believed the No.1 application of AI should be to improve human health. It’s time for AI to prove its unequivocal value to the world, and what better way to demonstrate that than to help finally cure diseases like cancer.
We’ve built a unique culture at GDM that has served us very well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your brilliance, dedication, and effort that make GDM the huge success it is today. We should all be extremely proud of the amazing things we’ve achieved so far. We’ve become the AI engine room of Google, with Gemini delivering helpful experiences everywhere including AI Mode and AI Overviews, the Gemini App rocketing to over 950M monthly users, and our fundamental and scientific research continues to lead the world. I’m very excited for our next chapter and the best is yet to come!
As a business we are in an incredibly strong position. We are the only company that has the full stack and we’re world-class at every layer from infrastructure to cloud to frontier models to AI-first applications. We have all the ingredients to lead from here, and I firmly believe we will.
Best
Demis
Facts Only
* Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Google and Alphabet.
* Demis Hassabis is becoming the Chair of Google DeepMind (GDM) and Chief Scientist of Alphabet.
* Demis Hassabis continues to lead Isomorphic Labs.
* Koray Kavukcuoglu is the SVP of Google DeepMind and Chief AI Architect of Google.
* Koray Kavukcuoglu reports to Sundar Pichai.
* Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat are launching an independent public benefit corporation.
* Google is a founding investor and Cloud partner for Dean and Ghemawat's new corporation.
* The Gemini app has over 950 million monthly users.
* Gemma models have over 900 million downloads.
* Koray Kavukcuoglu has been at DeepMind for 13 years.
* Demis Hassabis's new office is located at London Platform 37.
Executive Summary
Google and Alphabet are restructuring their AI leadership to bifurcate operational management from long-term strategic research. Demis Hassabis is transitioning from day-to-day operations at Google DeepMind to a high-level role as Chair of GDM and Chief Scientist of Alphabet, allowing him to focus on the trajectory of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and the application of AI in healthcare via Isomorphic Labs.
Koray Kavukcuoglu, a long-time DeepMind veteran, assumes the role of SVP of Google DeepMind. He will manage the development of Gemini models, the Gemini app, and frontier AI research. Simultaneously, veteran technologists Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat are departing to form an independent public benefit corporation focused on ML and science, though they maintain a strategic partnership with Google. These changes occur against a backdrop of significant user growth for the Gemini ecosystem and a stated corporate urgency to accelerate the "AI frontier."
Full Take
The strongest version of this narrative is one of organizational maturity: a company scaling from a research lab into a global product engine must separate its "visionary" (Hassabis) from its "operator" (Kavukcuoglu) to avoid the friction of managing both breakthrough science and monthly active user metrics.
However, the framing utilizes a high-altitude narrative to signal dominance. By positioning the current moment as the "foothills of the singularity," the leadership creates a sense of historical inevitability. This framing serves as a powerful retention and recruitment tool, suggesting that working at GDM is not merely a job, but a contribution to a pivotal moment in human history. The mention of curing cancer through Isomorphic Labs provides a moral anchor, effectively "sanewashing" the corporate drive for AGI by tethering it to an indisputable human good.
The root cause is the tension between the "moonshot" culture of DeepMind and the quarterly demands of a public company. The transition of Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat to a public benefit corporation is a notable pattern; it suggests a migration of foundational talent toward structures that may offer more intellectual freedom than a corporate hierarchy allows.
Implications for human agency are significant: when a single entity controls the "full stack" from compute to application, the definition of "AGI" is decided by a small circle of executives.
Bridge Questions:
1. How does the transition of foundational talent to "public benefit corporations" reflect the limitations of corporate AI research?
2. What happens to safety and ethics guardrails when the primary goal shifts from "research" to "accelerating momentum"?
Counterstrike Scan: A coordinated influence campaign would use "inevitability" and "moral imperative" (curing disease) to deflect from antitrust or safety concerns. While this internal communication uses similar tropes, it is a standard corporate alignment exercise rather than a deceptive external operation.
Patterns detected: ARC-0061 Sanewashing, ARC-0052 Authority Game
Sentinel — Human
This text reads as an authentic, high-level internal communication blending executive strategy with team restructuring, exhibiting the nuance expected from human leadership rather than generic AI output.