Google names Koray Kavukcuoglu DeepMind head as Hassabis moves to chair

Google restructured its AI leadership, naming Koray Kavukcuoglu head of DeepMind reporting directly to Sundar Pichai, while co-founder Demis Hassabis moves to Chair of Google DeepMind and Chief Scientist of Alphabet. In a LinkedIn post that drew over 18,000 reactions, Hassabis said he wants to focus on 'long-term AGI strategy and accelerating scientific breakthroughs,' leaning further into his work at Isomorphic Labs, adding that he believes AGI 'is now close at hand.'

Kavukcuoglu, a longtime DeepMind research leader, inherits oversight of Gemini development and frontier research at a pivotal moment: Gemini just crossed one billion monthly users and shipped 3.7 Flash, but the flagship 3.5 Pro remains delayed and two original Gemini technical co-leads departed to found their own startup.

The timing invites scrutiny. Leadership reshuffles at the top of a frontier lab, combined with senior technical departures and a slipping flagship, feed a narrative about talent churn and organizational strain even amid record usage. The optimistic read is that Hassabis moving to a strategy-and-science role frees him for the AGI and drug-discovery work he cares most about while a proven operator runs execution. The bearish read is that concentrating on Isomorphic and 'long-term strategy' signals distance from the day-to-day model race just as competition from OpenAI, Anthropic and Chinese labs peaks. Either way, the person now steering Gemini's roadmap is new.