Google AI shake-up: Jeff Dean leaves Google after 27 years to launch AI startup with top researchers

Google is entering a new phase in the artificial intelligence race after two of its most influential AI leaders changed roles within days of each other. Jeff Dean, one of Google's earliest employees and the architect behind many of its core technologies, is leaving the company after 27 years. At the same time, Demis Hassabis is stepping down as CEO of Google DeepMind to become Alphabet's Chief Scientist. The changes come as Google faces mounting pressure from rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic in the race to build the next generation of AI systems.

Jeff Dean starts a new AI company

Dean joined Google in 1999 when the company had only around 25 employees. During his career, he helped build technologies including MapReduce, Bigtable and Google Brain, and later played a major role in Gemini and Google's AI research. Announcing his departure on X, Dean said it had been "an amazing journey" watching Google grow into a company serving billions of users worldwide. He is now launching Discovery Loop, a startup focused on building AI systems that can automate scientific and engineering research. The company is co-founded by Google veterans Sanjay Ghemawat, Oriol Vinyals and Quoc Le, with backing from Khosla Ventures. Google will remain an investor and cloud infrastructure partner. According to WIRED, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai attempted to persuade the team to stay, but the founders ultimately chose the flexibility of building an independent company.

Hassabis moves to a broader research role

While Dean is leaving Google, Demis Hassabis is staying within Alphabet but giving up his operational responsibilities. He has been appointed Alphabet's Chief Scientist and Chair of Google DeepMind, while former DeepMind CTO Koray Kavukcuoglu will take over as CEO and report directly to Sundar Pichai. The move allows Hassabis to focus on long-term AI research, scientific discovery and the pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI), rather than overseeing day-to-day product development.

The twin announcements mark one of the biggest leadership reshuffles in Google's AI history. Dean's departure is particularly significant because Discovery Loop brings together four of Google's best-known AI researchers. Their goal is to develop AI systems capable of generating scientific hypotheses, running experiments and accelerating breakthroughs in biology, materials science, chip design and drug discovery. For Google, the challenge is now clear: continue competing with OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI leaders while replacing decades of engineering experience and accelerating Gemini's development. How successfully the company navigates this transition could shape the next chapter of the global AI race.